McIntyre at Mipcom: Amazon Studios' big data TV play won't see aristocrats as crystal meth dealers. Maybe

By Paul McIntyre | 9 October 2013
 

Big data is fast coming to TV courtesy of Amazon’s penchant for data farming, but the original shows that yet another emerging video-on-demand platform will bankroll are not quite as automated as you might expect. But still more automated than we might hope.

If you’ve missed it, Amazon Studios, like Netflix, has been all the talk inside Hollywood, broadcast TV networks and even Madison Avenue in the past year because they are no longer just acting as new online access points for viewers to get TV and movies where and when they want it (often without advertising).

These new players are now rapidly commissioning high-quality, original shows – the Netflix collaboration with Kevin Spacey’s acclaimed politico drama series, House of Cards, is one of the current pin-ups for VOD.

But in a fascinating keynote address by Amazon Studios’ boss Roy Price in Cannes yesterday – Price is a former McKinsey & Co guy, unsurprisingly – Price did try to explain that applying data analytics to original TV show commissions was a complex game.

Amazon’s prowess in knowing what you want based on what you and others like you have already bought on its e-commerce mega-mall is legendary. It currently has 220 million active accounts  across its e-commerce and VOD services in 10 countries.

Amazon wants to apply the same rigour around how it serves up recommendations to buy stuff on its e-commerce sites to original TV series commissions. But Price was keen yesterday on debunking how simplistic it all works inside Amazon’s big data machines.   

“You have to be a little bit careful in interpreting data,” he said. “So what do we do differently? Number one is customer preferences. We know what the audiences like and that is a helpful place to start – what are people responding to? But you have to be a little careful in interpreting the data.

“Obviously you can be too simplistic. Amazon customers like Breaking Bad, they like Downton Abbey so maybe we should develop a show of aristocrats in Surrey [England] who are also crystal meth dealers. We could freshen it up by making it [the drug of choice] cocaine. That would probably be, I would suggest, too simplistic.”

And I would suggest Price would be right. But you get the idea of where Amazon wants to take this whole data thing with TV. Amazon wants to mix data analytics with the creative industry to produce quality programming that will lure and keep viewers on its VOD platform.

Have a look here at AdNews sneak peek on one of Amazon Studios’ new TV series it is making which won’t be delivered in a classic linear TV broadcast schedule. It will be delivered on-demand through Amazon Prime, the company’s consumer-facing VOD brand.   
 
“Another issue,” Price said, “is one has to perceive the difference between a show that is moderately popular with everyone versus a show that a smaller group of people passionately love. When you are looking at the data, it is really important to be able to distinguish between those two.

“Because in a digital on-demand world where you have some people who have a passion for it, it is actually much more valuable than the other show where you have tonnes of people who are mildly positive about the show. So one thing we can see in the data and often what works really well historically is shows where a talented creator has a passionate vision for doing something original and interesting. So in the end that is the most important thing.”

More tomorrow from Mipcom. Stay tuned.

Paul McIntyre

*AdNews print and tablet editions will feature a four-page Mipcom report on November 1. Mipcom is the world’s biggest market for TV content, staged in October each year.

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