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 The Internet retailer rolled out the news of Allen's series
on Tuesday, two days after winning its first major awards at the
Golden Globes following years of experimentation with developing
original programming.
The deal with Allen, 79, who has said he doesn't use email or
own a computer, puts the filmmaker at the heart of Amazon's
strategy to use original content to woo consumers to its
$99-a-year Prime program, a vehicle for online shopping with
free shipping.
"The end game for Amazon is just getting more people to buy into
Prime, and this is their way of doing it," said Paul Verna, a
senior analyst at market research company eMarketer.
"It's almost as if they use content to get people to buy into
this program that is about a lot more than video content," Verna
added.
Filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, David
Fincher and Guillermo del Toro have all made recent forays into
television. Premium cable networks like Time Warner Inc's HBO
and Amazon's online streaming rival Netflix have offered
directors the chance and resources to tell longer-form stories
over several episodes and hours.
"I think any program developer or producer or director who has a
series or script or anything, at this point they're looking at
Amazon as on par with Netflix and really the whole rest of the
ecosystem," Verna said.
Amazon has been spending more on content overall, including $100
million in the third quarter alone on original shows, in the
latest sign of founder Jeff Bezos' hunger to dominate businesses
from books, to phones to entertainment.
'I HAVE NO IDEAS'
Allen's yet-to-be titled series will be a half-hour, Amazon
said, adding that casting announcements would be made in the
future. The series will be shown exclusively on its Instant
Prime Video service next year.
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The famously press-shy Allen joked that he was not sure how he got
involved in the project.
"I have no ideas and I'm not sure where to begin," the Oscar-winning
director said in a statement. "My guess is that Roy Price will
regret this," he added, referring to the vice-president of Amazon
Studios.
Known for his ironic insight into contemporary life, Allen has
starred in many of his own films, including generation-defining
comedies like "Annie Hall."
The deal cements Amazon's credibility following Sunday's Golden
Globe win for "Transparent," which is about a man transitioning to
live as a woman. The show's lead, Jeffrey Tambor, also won a Globe
for best actor in a TV comedy series.
"Amazon needed to prove they were a serious player in television
because there was always kind of a question mark of how real are
they," said Eric Deggans, National Public Radio's TV critic.
Like "Transparent," Allen's upcoming series and 13 new pilots for
programs that Amazon will unveil on Thursday will only be available
on Prime.
The Amazon Studios division began operations in 2010.
Allen, who makes a film almost every year through art-house studio
Sony Pictures Classics, has joked about his profitability as an
artist.
"The two biggest myths about me are that I'm an intellectual,
because I wear these glasses, and that I'm an artist because my
films lose money," he once said. "Those two myths have been
prevalent for many years."
(Additional reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru, Lisa
Richwine in Los Angeles and Patricia Reaney in New York; Editing by
Mary Milliken)
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