According to Amazon, more than 25 million viewers saw the start of the “Lord of the Rings” series on Amazon Prime Video last Friday. “The Rings of Power,” which precedes “The Hobbit,” was the streaming service’s biggest debut to date, the company said on Saturday.
Success, reach and advertisers
Amazon’s release of viewership numbers is rare, the Bloomberg report said, but streaming services have begun disclosing numbers and information more frequently. On the one hand, success should be made visible, on the other hand, the reach and size for advertisers should be shown.
At the start, the first two episodes of the first season were available in over 240 countries worldwide. One of the eight one-hour episodes will be released weekly on Amazon Prime Video until October 14th. The project based on JRR Tolkien’s stories (including four more seasons) is said to cost more than one billion US dollars. For the rights to the “sparse material” from the addendum to Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” alone, the shipping giant invested $ 250 million to compete against Netflix and Co.
Big Name Content – Rings vs. Dragons
Also, JD Payne and Patrick McKay, the minds behind The Rings of Power, have reportedly never been responsible for a series. The two were previously involved in the work on the script for “Star Trek: Beyond” and are expected to work on the “Flash Gordon” film, which is planned for 2025. According to media reports, the budget for the series is the highest Amazon has ever made available for a series.
The future of streaming providers is likely to depend to a large extent on their own and popular content, which is controlled by the respective services. Big names initially arouse great interest, but they also cost money. Streaming pioneer Netflix has been around for 25 years and is struggling to grow.
Almost parallel to the start of “The Rings of Power” another heavyweight with a big name appears – “House of Dragons”. The HBO series, which is available in Germany on Sky/WOW TV, tells the story of the Tagaryens before “Game of Thrones”. “House of Dragons” also broke records with the first episode. In the US, nearly 10 million viewers reportedly watched the series premiere on HBO Max – 2.6 million of them within the first 6 hours of publication.
Racism, trolls and bots – delayed user ratings
Amazon has quietly delayed posting user reviews on Amazon Prime Video by 72 hours. According to Variety, the reviews are evaluated before publication to find troll and bot ratings. The reason is also the cast with non-white actors in “The Rings of Power” and the possibility of sorting out hate messages. Variety reports that the series has been grappling with racist language for months.
The delay was introduced in August, a representative of the Amazon service confirmed to Variety. Any criticism will be evaluated accordingly. However, the company should not influence the overall rating and negative reviews should be allowed and published.
(bme)
