Amazon made a big move with its addition of MGM. It bought and integrated one of the long time Hollywood studios into Amazon Prime Video. This was just another in a long line of moves that shows the company's expansion.
We often talk about Amazon being the king of the "flywheel effect". Bezos laid out a masterful plan decades ago. Like most flywheels, they can be broken down into smaller ones within a company. This is an important lesson for Web 3.0.
Getting back to Amazon, the online retailer is much more than that. One of their primary areas of interest is within the broadcast television and entertainment industry. In fact, we see a couple simultaneous moves in that area.
Amazon Looking To Become A Major Telecommunications And Entertainment Player
Where do we start?
We know Amazon has a lot of money.
Over the last 12 months, the had a profit of almost $94 billion. That is a lot of cheddar to spread around and enter other markets. The MGM acquisition is one of many tentacles the company is casting.
The first is sports. We have discussed how the NBA broadcast rights are up for bidding and ESPN along with TNT, the incumbents, cannot afford to lose the rights.
Part of it appears to be gone.
Last year, Amazon streamed the NFL’s first-ever Black Friday game. now, according to a report from The Athletic, Amazon will be the new home to many NBA games as the two sides have reportedly agreed on a framework of a deal that would make Amazon the new home for the NBA.
The NBA currently taking bids for its next set of media rights deals for 2025. Amazon’s Global Head of Sports, Jay Marine, says the company is interested in the rights and is negotiating for more than regular-season games to tap into the league’s young fan base and global reach.
There is an agreement in place for Amazon to stream some NBA games going forward. The details of the arrangement were not announced.
Does this mean that Amazon is out of the bidding for the full package? This is hard to tell. Nevertheless, the company's offering is growing as a certain number of NBA will be on Amazon.
Next comes "Amazon Internet".
Last year Amazon successfully tested its new Internet service from space that will bring Internet to homes and businesses starting next year. To reach that goal, Amazon received FCC approval earlier this year to start testing up to 1,000 prototype dishes all over the United States. This will let Amazon begin mass testing as it prepares to launch satellites this year.
Now, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy has given an update on the service in his letter to shareholders. “In October, we hit a major milestone in our journey to commercialize Project Kuiper when we launched two end-to-end prototype satellites into space, and successfully validated all key systems and sub-systems—rare in an initial launch like this. Kuiper is our low ⇪ orbit× satellite initiative that aims to provide broadband connectivity to the 400-500 million households who don’t have it today (as well as governments and enterprises seeking better connectivity and performance in more remote areas), and is a very large revenue opportunity for Amazon. We’re on track to launch our first production satellites in 2024. We’ve still got a long way to go, but are encouraged by our progress.”
It seems that Amazon is looking to duplicate what Elon Musk and Starlink are doing. This is no surprise since Jeff Bezos is a major investor in Blue Origin.
What we can see is another technology company entering a realm it normally does not play in.
Tech companies Taking Over
The flywheel effect is one of the most powerful business models we have seen.
We often discuss how Elon Musk is setting these up, not only within Tesla but also across his many companies. Amazon is doing something similar.
Would anyone call Amazon an online retailer? That is still a huge part of their business yet, as we can see, they are looking to go much further. Here is where these companies have an enormous advantage over other players.
Amazon is excelling simply because it utilizes a different design. They operate unlike banks, retailers, real estate companies, movie studios, or telecommunication systems. For that reason, they are a threat to all of these.
Within the broadcast realm, do not be surprised if most of the Hollywood Studios are swallowed up over the next 5 years. Disney might be the only one left standing. All the others will end up being consumed by the bigger pockets that are tied to these technology companies.
From a stock perspective, here is what a flywheel company looks like.
This is what technology companies do.
Amazon is the master at it.