After calling FX for a few years Atlanta creator Donald Glover is reportedly moving to Amazon with an overall price of eight digits, according to several publications. The news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
As part of the deal, Glover is working on a series of projects for Amazon, including the recently announced Mr and Mrs Smith series, in which he will play together Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. (Waller-Bridge also has an overall agreement with Amazon.) One project reportedly involved Korf, centered on a “Beyoncé-like figure” Reporter. Glover’s most popular program, Atlanta, will continue at FX where the show is being hosted for a third and fourth season.
The most interesting aspect of the deal is probably that Amazon will create a kind of content channel that will highlight Glover’s work and other composite content on Amazon’s Prime Video hub, according to the Reporter. It is unclear whether Glover will have control over the composite works that appear on its own channel. If so, however, it could become an important creative and product feature that performs two key tasks for Amazon Prime Video in particular: the impressive talent that works with the company and exhibits ‘algorithm fatigue’.
Amazon Prime Video may be one of the better streaming platforms, but the terrible product interface and browsing capabilities can make it difficult to use. It’s even more surprising that Amazon’s team did not find a way to fix this, given the talent calendar the company has on deck. Waller-Bridge, Steve McQueen (Small ax), Jordan Peele (We), Gloria Calderón Kellett (One day at a time), Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan (Westworld), Lena Waithe (The Chi), and Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino (Wonderful Mrs. Maisel) are just some of the most productive creators, but their work gets lost in the mess that Prime Video’s current setup is.
The addition of a specific “channel” that exists on Amazon Prime Video’s homepage and emphasizes the creator’s work is a better form of marketing for the kind of series and movies that Amazon has. It’s a marketing and product tactic used by many streaming platforms in slightly different ways. With HBO Max, subscribers can click on an actor’s or director’s playlist and see what they’re watching. For example, Lovecraft Country actor Jurnee Smollett’s playlist celebrating Black History Month and Black film can be seen in the screenshot below.
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Other streaming services like Peacock and Discovery Plus have dedicated channels for specific series or creators. On these platforms, the idea is to repeat the feeling of live TV for people who want to do something House Hunters or Saturday Night Live and does not touch the remote again. On HBO Max and Amazon, the strategy creates a sense of healing from the talent working on shows and movies available to stream. (This is also a strategy that Criterion Channel’s streaming service and movie streaming platform MUBI mainly focuses on.) For example, if Netflix gives Martin Scorsese its own channel and hands over a list of movies on which the company has the right to stream, he The Irish and other films he truly worships.
As everything is currently in the industry, it all comes back to Scorsese. The director has an essay in Harper’s about Italian director Federico Fellini and the need for cinema touched on in an algorithm-defined, all-is-content world. Algorithm fatigue is not new, nor is Scorsese the only one frustrated by it.
It’s a tricky thing to get right. Most subscribers probably enjoy that Netflix’s recommendation algorithm helps to watch programs or movies that they are likely to be interested in. There are thousands of things to sift through differently. At the same time, the development of creative product features that highlight the work of an artist and make a more personal connection to film or television feel – and less like any other content – to make a platform feel like a hub for great TV and film instead of just a repository for any kind of content.