When Mike Hopkins was approached about leading Amazon (AMZN.O) Prime Video, his view of the streaming service matched one held widely in Hollywood — it was nothing more than a perk for subscribers of the online retailer’s two-day delivery service.

But Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had much bigger ambitions for the service that offers movies, television shows and original programming.

“After meeting with Jeff, it was very clear that he really saw this as an opportunity to build a media company,” said Hopkins, an entertainment industry veteran of Fox Networks, Sony Pictures and Hulu who has in the last four years plotted Prime Video’s path to mainstream Hollywood player.

A-LISTERS

Under Hopkins, Prime Video is being recast in the mold of a traditional media company, with its own film studio and theatrical distribution arm, a growing slate of original movies and series featuring A-list actors, an expanding roster of professional sports and advertising.

"We ... like the progress of Prime Video," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told investors this month.

Prime Video’s gathering star power — and live sports — position it to capture a greater share of the $28.75 billion in digital advertising revenue Emarketer projects will be spent this year on streaming, as marketers trim their investment in traditional television. Morgan Stanley estimates Prime Video ads could generate $3.3 billion in sales this year and more than double to $7.1 billion within two years.

Even so, Prime Video continued to lag industry leaders YouTube and Netflix by share of streaming television viewing in the U.S. for the month of June, as measured by Nielsen. And, while more of its shows have broken into Nielsen’s Top 10 ranking of the most-streamed original series in 2023, Netflix remains dominant.

Still, Amazon’s aspirations to create a single entertainment destination that offers something for every taste are coming into clearer focus, say nine agents, ad buyers and entertainment industry executives.

SPORTS, STARS AND ADS

Prime Video became the first streaming service to land an exclusive deal with the NBA, creating year-round sports programming that, by 2025, will include the NFL football, NASCAR car racing, the WNBA Finals and Champions League soccer.

And in a threat to traditional studios, Amazon plans to more than double the number of theatrical releases from six this year to as many as 16 by 2027, Reuters can report for the first time. That number does not include movies made for non-U.S. audiences, the five or six it typically acquires from other studios, and the dozen or so movies it plans to distribute directly on Prime Video. That output would rival that of Hollywood's most prolific studio, Universal Pictures.