Amazon Reckons Spending Stupid Money On Clarkson And Co Is A “Safe Bet"
While an actual figure hasn’t ever been officially confirmed, it’s well know Amazon Prime paid a lot to secure Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May for a new motoring show. In fact, $250 million was reported at some point, although it wasn’t clear how much of that was wages and how much was budget set aside for making awesome car films.
Speaking to The Guardian, Amazon Prime Video’s European chief Jay Marine wouldn’t comment on the actual figure, but insisted that the ex-Top Gear trio is more than worth it. “We talk a lot at Amazon about making bold bets but…this is on the safer side of bets I’ve made,” he said. Marine went on to say: “Have we paid a lot of money? For sure…But these guys are worth a lot of money. It’s very rare that you find something like this where a team come along who already have a built-in worldwide audience that I would argue is unique.”
Clarkson and co will also be treated to a much less meddlesome atmosphere than the one they experienced at the BBC. “The worst thing we could go and do is tell Jeremy, James and Richard how to make a great car show…They are in control. Those guys have a big budget and creative freedom and we are here to support them.”
One thing that is yet to be decided is exactly how the series will be released. Amazon often puts out large batches of episodes in a method it calls “binge-release,” but according to Marine, a more traditional episodic release format could still be used: “there is also something nice about a weekly cadence where people are all on the same episode and there is social discussion about what happened last night. Stay tuned, we haven’t made that decision.”
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Sweet, can’t wait!
$250 Million?! That’s a LOT of Diskloks.
Apparently millions of US homes have amazon Prime….so thats already a tonne of money, couple that with the postage offers and i dont see why people wouldnt jump on the Amazon Prime band wagon…..As a family we make about 60-120 orders from amazon a year and the prime feature saves money…..so why not just get Clarkson and Co thrown in?
Well of course it’s a risk when big money is involved but what they are getting is one of the most loved TV formats, with 3 experienced hosts that are all legends in their own right. There’s hardly a better show they could ask for, and since it is exclusive to them it boosts their own broadcast services by a huge amount. It has the ingredients to be the best car show on TV ever, and I for one am sure looking forwards to seeing it! :)
Amazon be like
“They are the most expensive crew…………………….. in the World”
Unpopular opinion: I think this show will be a flop! Yes I said that, but I don’t think it will be a flop because of quality issues but rather because not enough people will sign up for amazons streaming service
I think it’s a safe bet he’s right.
In the US, nearly half of all households have Prime (~54 million), and they spend nearly twice as much as non prime members ($1100 v $600 yearly, on average). So picking up a few million new members will cover that $250 million pretty easily. I don’t know what the net gain is for a new Prime member, because the other services do cost money to provide, but still… So, considering they made over $100 billion last year, the show budget isn’t a huge financial risk, and it could easily pay for itself.
Top gear changed my pronunciation of Ama-zon, to Ah-ma-zn.