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How Amazon's $250 million Grand Tour could prove to be an absolute bargain

The big money was right there on the screen for the first episode of The Grand Tour, Messrs Clark...
Newstalk
Newstalk

14.25 22 Nov 2016


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How Amazon's $250 mill...

How Amazon's $250 million Grand Tour could prove to be an absolute bargain

Newstalk
Newstalk

14.25 22 Nov 2016


Share this article


The big money was right there on the screen for the first episode of The Grand Tour, Messrs Clarkson, Hammond and May's new Amazon vehicle, but Netflix chief Ted Sarandos has revealed that the car show cost even more than initially reported.

Previously, it was claimed that almost $200 million had been pumped into the new car series.

Sarandos told the Telegraph:

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"That's an under-reported number. It was about a quarter of a billion dollars."

A fee most would balk at, Sarandos went on to suggest that the show heralded as "Top Gear with a bigger budget" will end up being worth every cent for his company's rival.

He said:

"We knew what it was worth. We made a play for that show, definitely, but we've every season of Top Gear on Netflix in most territories in the world, so we had a better sense than most of what the audience was for Top Gear on our platform."

Episode one may have only arrived on the Prime Video (not currently available in Ireland) on Friday but there are already noises that Amazon have done well to secure the old Top Gear team.

According to the company, the debut episode was Prime Video's biggest ever premiere, attracting "millions" of viewers and breaking the record previously held by The Man In The High Castle.

Subscriptions also apparently shot up, with Amazon confirming that it saw the second biggest number of new member sign-ups to Amazon Prime on the day of its debut. It was just behind Prime Day, the annual sales holiday that has enticed tens of millions to the service.

As Business Insider points out, this shows how Prime Video is having a direct impact on Prime membership, which is good news for the company – Prime members spend about 4.6 times more money on Amazon than non-Prime members. They spent $123bn on Amazon goods in 2015, accounting for nearly 60% of the company's total merchandise value.


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