More than 5 million people have been attracted to Amazon Prime as a result of its investment in video content.
Documents obtained by Reuters show the US audience for video streamed on the Prime service amounts to around 26 million. It’s the first time that any figures have been revealed.
The internal documents compare the cost, viewership, and the number of people brought to Prime. The so-called Prime Originals are estimated to represent around a quarter of sign-ups to Prime in the period between 2014 and 2017.
Following recent price increases customers in the United States pay a monthly $12.99 for Prime. In return they gain access to a two-day delivery service and other items such as Amazon Prime Video and a premium audio service.
One example is The Man in the High Castle, an alternate reality in which Germany emerged as the dominant after world war two. The drama cost $72 million in production and marketing; based on the documents it attracted 1.15 million subscribers worldwide. At an average $63 per subscriber the figure is significantly less than the $99 that’s been paid for the service.
Amazon credits the show responsible for bringing in the customer to the service under a metric known as the “first stream”.
While the documents don’t show how Amazon apportions first stream status, it follows that a new customer who binges on a particular show following sign-up goes a long way towards pointing to the reason for their subscription.
