09 September 2015

The Telegraph: “Amazon’s Jeff Bezos: With Jeremy Clarkson, we’re entering a new golden age of television”

I think we’re in a golden age of television, so if you go back in time even just five years, you couldn’t get A-list talent to do TV serials, or, if you could, it was a rare thing. But that’s flipped completely.

Bezos points to Amazon’s investment in series such as comedy drama Transparent, for which lead actor Jeffrey Tambor won a Golden Globe, as the main reason for the transformation.

The investment is very high now in serialised TV, and the amount of time you have to tell a story is much greater. That format change opens up a lot of storytelling possibilities, which, when mixed with the movie-like production standards, and the A-list talent, is why we’re seeing amazing television.

James Quinn

Not one to miss an opportunity, Amazon’s CEO is also investing in original television content, taking advantage of the shift from passive watching to more active on-demand shows. If the rumored replacement for Top Gear will be available exclusively on Amazon Video, I’m quite sure it will drive many new customers to sign up.

Jeremy Clarkson new car show Amazon Prime
James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond will present a new car show on Amazon Prime from 2016

His remarks about physical stores are pretty intriguing too. Maybe stores with 3D-printed models of merchandise, so that customers can get a sense of the size and look of the product before buying? Or a giant store equipped with Dash buttons, where people gently stroll without shopping carts, touching the Dash buttons when they see something they want, while the items are collected in the background to their account and delivered at their address before they even arrive home…

Physical stores have obviously been around for hundreds of years. And the companies that are experts at them are very good at their businesses. So I think it’s an area where we need to be very humble.
If Amazon were to do physical stores we’d need to have something that’s a little different.
Jeff Bezos

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