Amazon.com Inc. said Tuesday that director Woody Allen will make his first foray on to the small screen, writing and directing a television series for the online retailer. It is the latest coup for deep-pocketed cable and streaming companies vying to lure the biggest names in Hollywood to their online video offerings.
The deal with Mr. Allen aligns with Amazon chief executive officer Jeff Bezos's strategy of producing original shows and competing with Netflix Inc. and Time Warner Inc.-owned HBO, which have also attracted viewers with exclusive content. Amazon picked up two Golden Globe Awards this week for its original series Transparent, which beat out programs from HBO, the CW Network and Netflix to win best TV series, musical or comedy, as well as best actor for Jeffrey Tambor, who plays the main character.
Amazon said the show will be available to subscribers of Amazon's Prime service, which costs $99 a year for access to a library of digital shows and movies, along with two-day shipping and other perks.The yet-to-be titled series will be a half-hour, the Seattle-based company said, and casting announcements will be made at a later date.
Filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher and Guillermo del Toro have all made recent entrys into television. Premium cable networks such as HBO and online streaming site Netflix have offered directors the chance and resources to tell longer-form stories over several episodes and hours. "Amazon needed to prove they were a serious player in television because there was always kind of a question mark of how real are they," said Eric Deggans, the TV critic at National Public Radio. "They won two Golden Globes and with this now, they're stepping up."
While the company doesn't disclose how many of its customers pay for Prime, analysts' estimates range from 20 million to 35 million subscribers. Amazon, which introduced Amazon Studios in November, 2010, plans to start showing seven new shows this week, including an hour-long drama from director Ridley Scott that envisions what would happen if the Allies had lost the Second World War. In addition, six new shows for children will be released.
The studio, based in Santa Monica, Calif., is headed by Roy Price, the son of former Columbia Pictures chief Frank Price. The company has sought to differentiate itself from traditional TV networks by soliciting scripts online and asking viewers to vote on whether or not they like the initial episode.
Amazon Studios is also part Mr. Bezos's push to invest in new areas to diversify the company's businesses and create new income opportunities. In the past year, the CEO has rolled out new TV-streaming devices and a smartphone. Amazon also has more than one million customers for Amazon Web Services, a cloud-computing platform used by other companies to store data and run software over the Web.
The original-programming initiative is aimed at luring more customers to Amazon's library of digital shows and movies, much of which isn't available on Prime and is rented or purchased by users.
Bloomberg News and Reuters