Amazon Video numbers released and it means huge things for Amazon Prime

Amazon Video has climbed up with Netflix and Hulu as one of the top streaming services to also produce original material.

However, while both Netflix and Hulu aim their efforts and bringing more people to their services to watch their films and TV shows — original and licensed — Amazon Video exists for a different reason. That makes the recently released numbers of customers watching Amazon Video important for the company.

Reuters released a report that shared information from internal Amazon documents that indicates that 26 million Amazon Prime subscribers also stream Amazon Video programming — both original TV shows, series from other companies, and films on demand.

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That is much lower than the number released by Netflix via Media Play News. According to those reports, Netflix subscribers have climbed to 117 million — all of which subscribe with the sole purpose of watching movies and TV series.

That is the difference.

While there are only 26 million Amazon Prime subscribers watching Amazon Video, CNBC reported in 2017 that there are about 65 million Amazon Prime subscribers. That means that less than half are watching Amazon Video, but the rise of original series could cause that number to rise.

The difference is that Amazon does not necessarily care if more subscribers watch Amazon Video. Instead, they want the people who subscribe for the purpose of watching the movies and TV shows to also shop Amazon and use the free 2-day shipping to buy things.

There are some people who think that Amazon paying #250 million for the rights to make a Lord of the Rings series is risky. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Here is what people are not taking into account.

Amazon will make a Lord of the Rings television series for their Amazon Video streaming service. People will watch the series and then those same people can turn around and buy the original movies and the books by J.R.R. Tolkien — straight from Amazon after watching it.

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People can watch The Man in the High Castle and then turn around and buy the book by Philip K. Dick, as well as other books by the sci-fi author. They can watch Bosch and then buy the Michael Connelly books by the author, of which there are 21 of them to date, all straight from Amazon.

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Amazon Video is making a Jack Ryan series, and have the Jack Ryan books and previous movies on sale at Amazon. That is why they are making things like Conan the Barbarian (movies, books, and comics) and Stephen King’s Dark Tower (a wealth of material there). It puts a person who might want to buy the books and movies already on Amazon when they are watching the shows.

Amazon Video has one-fifth of the viewers of Netflix, but the ones they have can make Amazon a fortune.