Amazon Halts Submissions Of Documentaries, Short Films For Prime Video Direct
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has announced that its Prime Video Direct platform has stopped accepting unsolicited documentary and short film submissions.
What Happened: Content that appears on the Prime Video Direct platform is submitted by the rights-holders. If submissions are accepted, the rights-holders receive a licensing agreement from Amazon. Rights-holders receive 50% of the net revenue from the streamed content.
Documentaries and short films have been part of the Prime Video Direct platform since it launched in May 2016, and the decision to cease accepting submissions from these genres came without warning or explanation.
“At this time, we're no longer accepting unsolicited licensing submissions via Prime Video Direct for non-fiction and short form content,” the company said in a statement posted to its website. “We’ll notify you if these categories become available for consideration.”
Related Link: Jeff Bezos Might Be Targeting NFL's Washington Football Team: Report
Why It Happened: Amazon is the only major streaming service that accepted unsolicited film submissions, and the service attracted titles from both independent filmmakers and smaller distribution companies. According to a report in the entertainment trade magazine Filmmaker, Amazon’s Prime Video Direct service could account for up to 40% of a release’s overall revenue.
In its online statement, Amazon said it was seeking out “content that delights and engages our customers, improves our curated catalog, and elevates our service (this assessment varies over time, by country/region and offer type).”
Amazon also said it will no longer accept Prime Video Direct submissions involving slide shows, vlogs, podcasts, tutorials, filmed conferences, monologues, toy play, music videos and voiceover gameplay.
Photo by Gagnonm1993/Pixabay.
See more from Benzinga
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
