Variety: Prime Video Aims for ‘Broad and Well-Rounded Slate,’ Hannah Blyth, Head of TV Licensing in the U.K., Says at Mip London

Story from Variety:

Hannah Blyth, head of TV licensing at the U.K. arm of Amazon’s Prime Video, underscored the desire to have “a broad and well-rounded slate” when speaking Wednesday at TV event Mip London.

As well as male and older viewer skewing titles such as “Clarkson’s Farm” and “Reacher,” Blyth said that Prime Video also had secured shows that would appeal to a female and younger crowd.

One example, she said, is “Molly-Mae: Behind It All,” a docu-series that follows the life of British social media influencer Molly-Mae Hague as she deals with her break-up with the boxer Tommy Fury. “It really drove a lot of acquisition of younger female audiences, and the show is very much designed for them specifically,” she said.

The show is part of a growing trend at Prime Video of working with the “creator economy,” she said. “The benefit is that you have these influencers who have very engaged, very loyal fan bases,” she said. However, she cautioned that “it still needs to be compelling content that makes sense as long-form” content.

In the case of “Molly-Mae,” Blyth said, “She’s very endearing, and people feel like they know her very well, but [it was important to have] the space for a long-form title where you are seeing into her life from a different angle and a different perspective.” She added: “Some of the biggest feedback we got was that it really changed people’s expectations of her and what they thought that they knew.”

Sports and other live events play an important role in building the subscriber base for Prime Video with a recent soccer match between Manchester City and Real Madrid drawing 4 million viewers. But also important were sports docuseries, such as “Married to the Game,” about the wives and girlfriends of big soccer stars, which helped “broaden” the audience.

Blyth was speaking at a session titled “What Do Streamers Want?,” which looked at acquisition and licensing trends in the streaming market. She was joined by Kai Finke, chief content officer at SkyShowtime.

Finke said the priority for SkyShowtime, which operates in 22 European countries, was to “play to our strengths.” Among its strongest content was series such as thriller “The Day of the Jackal” and sci-fi “Halo,” and films from its co-owners Paramount Global and Comcast, such as Universal’s “Wicked” and Paramount’s “Gladiator II.”

He added that it had a “need to provide local authenticity” with local content such as two-part documentary series “Schmeichel,” about the life of Danish soccer goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel.

A key point of agreement for Blyth and Finke was the need to be flexible when looking at windowing, splitting rights and exclusivity. Blyth said that this was driven by the need to secure top-notch content. Pre-buys were one way to secure content, such as with “Those About to Die,” which is with Peacock in the U.S. but with Prime Video in the U.K. and other international territories. More recently, Prime Video has teamed with Fremantle on revenge thriller series “Kill Jackie,” starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. “We need for these shows to get off the ground,” she said. “Everyone is becoming more flexible.”

The session was moderated by Jack Davison, executive VP, 3Vision.

Mip London runs Feb. 23-27 at IET London conference center.