In the past few minutes, head of Prime Video’s EU Established division Brigitte Ricou-Bellan informed staff of Bird’s departure, noting he will leave this business this month.A search for a successor for Bird, who has led the Prime Video UK business since 2021, will begin “shortly.”Bird’s departure is the second major exec exit from Prime Video’s UK office in recent months, coming after Barry Furlong left his VP of Prime Video EMEA post in January, replaced by Andrew Bennett. We also revealed last month that James Farrell was exiting his role as Head of International Originals after more than a decade with Amazon.Bird is arguably of Amazon’s longest-serving streaming executive. He joined the business in 2011 when Amazon acquired LoveFilm, which at the time operated in the UK and Germany. Amazon had bought a minority stake in LoveFilm in 2008, making his association with the tech giant go back even further.After joining, he had led content acquisition teams across Europe as Amazon rolled out its Prime Video service across the world.“In that time, Chris has helped to grow Prime Video UK into one of the most influential streaming services in the UK, overseeing major milestones such as the recent launch of UEFA Champion’s League, the acquisition of Bray Studios as well as appearing in governmental select committees to demonstrate the importance of PV UK to the UK film and TV industry,” said Ricou-Bellan in her note.In a note to staff, Bird wrote: “In 14 short years, we’ve gone on to have one of the largest entertainment services in the UK, creating incredible local programming like Clarkson’s Farm, The Devil’s Hour and Last One Laughing, building out our studio infrastructure at Bray and Shepperton, and producing one of the biggest TV shows of all time, The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power, right here in the UK.“I feel immensely proud of Prime Video’s achievements during this time, we were the first UK streamer to offer film, series and live sports programming as part of the Prime subscription, alongside buy and rent and add-on subscriptions all in one place.”Prime Video UK now sits within Prime Video EU Established, which comprises UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain. A second unit in Europe, EU Expansion, is now focused on growth in the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, Turkey and Poland, as its boss, Ritchie Ordonez outlined to Deadline in a recent interview.
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