Amazon Studios will soon license its original series and movies to third-party platforms.
Amazon said Monday it will distribute its original films and
TV shows, like “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” to media outlets outside its Prime
Video service for the first time.
The works will be licensed via a new unit called Amazon MGM
Studios Distribution, which expands the number of titles currently offered by
Hollywood studio MGM. Last year, the e-commerce-behemoth-turned-media-giant
closed its acquisition of MGM — which houses more than 4,000 film titles and
17,000 TV episodes — for $8.5 billion.
At launch, the new division will offer several series and
films including “Coming 2 America” and “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Amazon
said. The unit will be led by Chris Ottinger, the head of distribution at MGM,
who will continue to oversee distribution of MGM’s new releases and film
franchises, such as the James Bond and Rocky series.
“With the integration of MGM, we wanted to take advantage of
the existing team to expand our business in ways that will greatly benefit our
customers around the world,” Jen Salke, who heads up Amazon and MGM Studios,
said in a prepared statement.
Last week, Amazon said it would add more than 100 Amazon
Originals to i ts free, ad-supported streaming service Freevee.