In a surprise move, Apple and Amazon have cut a deal that will bring the Apple TV+ streaming service to Amazon’s Prime Video channels.
The deal will see Apple TV+ join streaming services like Max, Paramount+, AMC+ and Starz as a subscription add-on for Prime Video subscribers. Apple TV+ will cost $9.99 per month, and as with other streaming add-ons for Prime Video, users will be able to watch all their content within the Prime Video app. Apple TV+ will be added later this month.
Prime Video chief Mike Hopkins announced the deal at the Bloomberg Screentime Conference Wednesday evening.
“Our companies do a lot of business together, and want to thank Eddie Cue, who I know isn’t here tonight, but he and his team have done a great job with this deal, and we’re excited to get it going,” Hopkins said of the deal.
“We want to make Apple TV+ and its award-winning library of series and films from the world’s greatest storytellers available to as many viewers as possible,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior VP of services, in a statement. “We’re thrilled that Prime Video will now offer Apple TV+, giving viewers an incredible breadth of viewing options.”
Why would Apple TV+ want to strike a deal with Prime Video? As Cue noted and Hopkins argued, it is about scale, with Amazon having a lot of it (as its NFL Thursday Night Football numbers prove out) and Apple TV+ still very much a smaller streaming player. Hopkins said that Prime Video has “hundreds of millions” of users.
“I think having this engagement around the world with Prime members accessing Prime Video is a real great platform for other partners to be able to reach them, easy access to the subscriber base, one stop shop, easy navigation, one click subscription, right in one app,” Hopkins said. “And I think that’s what that’s what’s attracting partners.”
Apple TV+ has series like Ted Lasso, Slow Horses, The Morning Show and Severance, as well as films like Wolfs. It is also the global streaming home of Major League Soccer. While Prime Video has cut similar deals with other streaming services, the move is a significant departure in strategy for Apple, which has made Apple TV+ a key part of its Apple One bundle, alongside products like Apple Music, Apple News and Apple Arcade.
Hopkins also touched on a number of other topics during the Screentime conversation, including the future of the James Bond franchise, which Amazon shares with the Broccoli family. When pressed on future Bond movies, Hopkins said, “We’re working on those too. We’ll see. I wish I could announce something there, we’re not ready to.”
As for his approach to managing the IP that the company acquired with MGM, Hopkins argued that a careful approach is best:
“I think it’s really important that when you have the kinds of IP that exists at MGM, and it exists other places, you have to handle reimagining that IP with care,” he said. “Consumers aren’t looking necessarily just for a remake of something. So if you’re going to do things, we think you have to do it with a different angle, a different take, and it has to be good for audiences.”
He also compared Prime Video to a “broadcast network on steroids” in terms of the breadth and depth of its content.
“We’re Amazon, and we want to be a lot of things to a lot of people. So it does mean that we’re covering a lot of ground, because we have, like I said, hundreds of millions of consumers around the world accessing our app, using it, everyone’s different. Everyone’s got different tastes,” he said. “And so if you’re going to be successful in a business like this, you can’t be that narrow. You actually have to be broad.”