15:42 PST 2/8/2021
by
Natalie Jarvey
,
Incoming CEO Andy Jassy is unlikely to take on big studios – but he has built ties with Hollywood while running the tech giant’s web services division.
You have to forgive someone in Hollywood whose reaction to the February 2 news that Andy Jassy will replace Jeff Bezos as Amazon CEO, “who?”
Jassy, an editor of Amazon, ran the Seattle e – commerce giant’s highly profitable cloud computing division for nearly two decades, a role that could barely put him in the position of rubbing elbows with the creative that movies and TV shows have. programs for Amazon Studios. But the appointment of Jassy as CEO, which will take place during the third quarter when Bezos becomes CEO, has little impact on the company’s entertainment industry, Amazon said.
‘One of the great features of Hollywood is that when you enter a new leader, the guard changes. This is not Amazon’s way, ”says Bill Carr, former vice president of Amazon, who oversaw Prime Video and Amazon Studios in the early days and co-authored the upcoming book. Working backwards: insights, stories and secrets from within Amazon.
WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who worked under Bezos during the early days of Amazon, calls his former boss’ one of the most talented and effective educators this planet has to offer, for those willing to listen and learn. ‘ Jassy is one of the managers who utilized the teachings. He spent a year and a half in the shadow of Amazon’s billionaire founder before founding Amazon Web Services, which he built into a $ 45 billion data hosting business in 2020 sales.
Those who know both drivers well say that Jassy is not expected to deviate far from the rate set by Bezos. Where Jassy can differ most from Bezos is in his personal interest.
It was Bezos’ passion for entertainment – not to mention his desire to attract more subscribers to Amazon’s Prime membership – that drove the company to launch the Amazon Studios entertainment arm in 2010. In the years that followed, Bezos – who had long owned a Los Angeles home and bought David Geffen’s Warner Estate for $ 165 million in 2020 – became an award for grants. “Jeff was a strong supporter and supporter of the Amazon Studios efforts and was very interested in their progress, and that’s helpful,” said Tom Wellington, co-head of television at WME. “What has made Jeff’s interest possible is that Prime Video and Amazon Studios need to get some space in the Amazon culture to do things in a way that works more for Hollywood.”
Yet Bezos was relatively practical when it came to programming. He does not sit on tone meetings. Instead, Amazon Studios executives, led by Jennifer Salke, travel to Seattle to present their Greenlight decisions to him. “I would never say no to something the team wanted to do, but I might say yes to something the team did not want to do,” Bezos explained to THR in a 2015 interview.
According to sources, there have been a few projects where Bezos has played a more active role, including Amazon’s $ 250 million deal for rights to JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings which includes a five-season commitment to a TV series based on the fantasy novels. Bezos’ personal interest in space set The vastness It is also said that he played a role in Amazon’s decision to revive the series after its cancellation on SyFy. (In a rare move, Bezos took Amazon Studios’ season four pick of The vastness himself during a 2018 appearance at a National Space Society conference.)
People close to Jassy, meanwhile, describe him as a lover of sports – he is a fan of the New York Giants and co-owner of the Seattle Kraken pro hockey team – and music, informed by the management of bands in his youth. One person who knows Jassy well believes that he is unlikely to interfere with the creation of an Amazon Studios project, but that he is compelling the media to be an ally for the company’s entertainment partners.
This is what he did as the CEO of AWS, which offers a range of media services products that have become part of the essential backbone of video streaming. The Walt Disney Co., Netflix, Comcast and NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia, Sony, Fox Corp. ViacomCBS, Discovery Inc. and MGM are all customers of Jassy’s Amazon Kingdom and use AWS to operate their streaming services. It is known that Jassy occasionally engages in high-level conversations between AWS and his clients, whether it be to help conclude an agreement or to help resolve a fixed point.
While Amazon’s entertainment business is a prominent part of the business, it will not be one of Jassy’s first priorities as CEO, a role he will assume if the $ 1.7 billion company undergoes an increased regulatory investigation. The Amazon Studios division has a content budget of $ 7 billion, but the company does not break out its revenue or operating income. After all, shows like Jack Ryan and The boys is intended to help Amazon ensure that its 150 million Prime subscribers continue to renew their membership.
Salke projected confidence about the future of the LA outpost amid the move of the CEO on Golden Globes morning, February 3rd. After the studio received ten nominations, she said THR that Bezos remains a ‘big fan of our business”.
Even after Jassy took the reins at Amazon, Carr says it would be a waste of time for Hollywood to roll out the red carpet: ‘I would be very surprised if Andy puts his hand firmly on the steering wheel to change the artistic direction of Amazon Studios and take into account specific Greenlight decisions. ”
Alex Weprin contributed to this report.