Amazon Prime members watched more than double the videos in 2016 than they did the year before, the retailer and SVOD provider announced Feb. 2 during its fourth quarter and year-end fiscal results.
Amazon touted its expansion of Prime Video to more than 200 countries and territories worldwide during 2016, including the launch of Amazon.in, which will include its own Indian Amazon Original Series with that nation’s biggest stars and filmmakers. Amazon used its Q4 results to tout its seven Oscar nominations and two Golden Globe victories (best actor in the drama category for Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea, and best actor in a TV drama for Billy Bob Thornton, Goliath).
The debut episode of Amazon’s original comedy The Grand Tour turned out to be the single biggest premiere ever for Prime Video, with millions of members streaming the episode worldwide, the company said.
For the fourth quarter, ended Dec. 31, Amazon reported sales of $43.7 billion, up 22% year over year, and a profit of $749 million, up from $482 million a year ago.
“Our Prime team’s customer obsession kept them busy in 2016,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, in a statement. “Prime members can now choose from over 50 million items with free two-day shipping—up 73% since 2015. Prime Video is now available in more than 200 countries and territories.
“Prime Now added 18 new cities, which means millions more members now get one and two-hour delivery. New benefits were also added to the list, like Prime Reading, Audible Channels for Prime, Twitch Prime and more. And customers noticed — tens of millions of new paid members joined the program in just this past year.”
