Prime Video named a business with 'tens of billions of dollars' in revenue for the first time

Amazon reveals the scale of Prime Video's revenue

Prime Video has 'become a meaningful business with tens of billions of dollars in annualized revenue and is now profitable on its own,' said the Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on the quarterly earnings call on Thursday, October 29. What is new here is precisely the scale: in May, Jassy had already told investors that the streaming service was profitable, but he voiced a revenue estimate in the tens of billions for the first time. This marks a notable shift from the previous situation, when Prime Video was typically viewed as an add-on to the Amazon Prime subscription rather than a standalone source of revenue.

Film and sports as growth drivers

Four years after the $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM the Amazon MGM Studios film studio, according to the company, has grossed more than $1.2 billion at the global box office since the beginning of the year. The biggest hit was 'Project Hail Mary' starring Ryan Gosling, based on Andy Weir's novel: according to The Numbers, it grossed about $684 million and became the studio's highest-grossing release. Among the year's failures, the outlet names the film 'Melania'. Jassy also listed successful series — 'Carrie,' 'The Summer I Turned Pretty,' 'The Boys,' Off Campus, 'Fallout' and 'Reacher': the fourth season of 'Reacher' was watched by 66 million viewers in its first 28 days, a fifth season is in production, and a sixth has been ordered.

Sports content

Sports have also been a significant driver: Prime Video broadcasts NASCAR, the Masters tournament and UEFA Champions League matches, but the company's biggest success of the year, according to its data, was Thursday Night Football. The first six games of the season averaged 17.7 million viewers — 16% more than a year earlier, according to Nielsen figures shared by Amazon. The second season of NBA on Prime, according to Nielsen, attracted more than 2 million viewers.