New Players Series: Amazon Produces Comedy and Youth content
Soon after content creation initiatives by Netflix and Hulu, Amazon said in May 2012 that it too would produce and distribute original creations, in this case targeted exclusively for its Premium members.
Unlike its competitors, though, it will select content by inviting scriptwriters (professional and amateur) to submit projects for comedy series and children’s content via a website. With the site expressly designed to gather submissions, Amazon will put crowdsourcing at the heart of the creative process.
The company says it will indicate acceptance of project submissions for the first selection round within 45 days, much faster than the months, and sometimes years, it takes to hear back from traditional television studios.
Why it matters: Netflix and Hulu are relatively new web players and still have limited financial means. Amazon, on the other hand, has been in business nearly 20 years and can risk more money on new production activities. In time, the volume and quality of original content produced by Amazon may affect the whole audiovisual content market. Also, the Amazon model, which has drastically changed the book industry (hybrid editing and self-publishing approach through tools such as CreateSpace), may also influence how the company produces content.
