Amazon has spent more than £4.2B ($5.4B) on the UK creative industries including TV and film since 2010, the conglomerate has revealed, contributing £4.8B to the UK economy.
Unveiled at a swanky London do at the BFI Southbank tonight, the Jeff Bezos-run outfit said it has doubled spend over the past five years, although didn’t put a figure on this. The numbers, however, are behind Netflix’s spend of $6B on original UK content alone over the past four years.
Amazon’s big budget UK TV and films include Good Omens with the BBC and Harry Styles-starring My Policeman, while it has moved production of Season 2 of the biggest budget TV series of all time, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, to the nation.
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In terms of its impact on the economy, Amazon said its investments have contributed £4.8B of Gross Value Added to the UK economy over the 13-year period. Figures from consultancy Capital Economics showed that Amazon’s investments supported more than 16,000 jobs last year, the same year in which it signed a multimillion pound deal with Shepperton Studios to take over facilities for the next decade.
Amazon set out the figures as it reached the second phase of its UK Prime Video Pathway designed to open up access to jobs in TV and film, which will support 250 apprentices over the coming years and another 100 across the creative industries.
UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, who recently unveiled a target to grow the UK creative sector by £50B within seven years, said Amazon has “embraced the huge depth of creativity and technical expertise in the UK.”
“Its continued investment is testament to what we offer in film, music, fashion, tech and publishing,” she added. “Many of its ambitions align closely with our own plans for the creative sectors and we are going to build on Britain’s status as a world-class creative nation and maximise their potential to unleash economic growth and create jobs.”
Prime Video is also being welcomed into the BFI National Archive, with the likes of Good Omens and Clarkson’s Farm preserved for generations. BFI CEO Ben Roberts said Amazon deserves to be recognized for its “considerable economic and cultural impact.”
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