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Amazon.com Inc. CEO Andy Jassy is taking a hard look at how much the company’s Hollywood studio spends on original TV programming. In recent weeks, he has asked executives for detailed budget analyses of some of their biggest shows, according to people familiar with the matter, scrutinizing the studio’s ballooning costs and mixed track record with audiences.
The Hollywood studio, which has spent tens of billions of dollars on original programming over the last decade, is an obvious place to look for savings. Last year, Amazon spent $7 billion on original shows, licensed programs and sports, up from $5 billion the year before. Only Netflix and Disney spend more on streaming.
In the past nine months, Amazon has released at least a half-dozen pricey series that failed to deliver huge audiences. Daisy Jones & the Six, The Power, Dead Ringers and The Peripheral all cost more than $100 million to produce but failed to crack Nielsen’s list of the 10 most-watched streaming programs in the US. Even The Rings of Power ($400 million-plus), a show that attracted a large audience, failed to hold on to most of its viewers over the course of the season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
No show illustrates Amazon’s liberal spending better than Citadel, a global spy thriller that cost more than $250 million for one season. Despite being one of the most expensive series in TV history, Citadel has failed to chart as one of the 10 most-watched streaming programs in the US in any week since it debuted, according to Nielsen. It did hit the top 10 among streaming originals for a week, coming in just behind Netflix Inc.’s Barbecue Showdown.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/news...n-its-big-spending?srnd=premium&sref=W6GJF3MS
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