Amazon is making a TV and I have many questions
What do they want exactly?
This newsletter is supposed to be about questions, and I have a bunch of questions about Amazon’s upcoming TV. So here goes:
Amazon is considered smart and good at money. So what is this TV about exactly?
Is this mostly a play for TV advertising?
Owning the home with the home’s central device?
Do they want to make TV commerce a real thing? Not like QVC, but more like that old nonsense we all used to spout about, ‘someday you’ll b able to buy Ross’s shirt while watching ‘Friends’!” except now Ross is 50 and he’s doing Friends reunions. Seriously though, could Amazon turn on shoppable TV ads, and or always-on live shopping?
Are we gonna see voice-enabled ads, and click and shop ads, and stuff like that?
These TVs start at almost $400 bucks. that’s a lot right? TVs are kind of cheap these days. So are Fire sticks. Why do I want this exactly? People love Amazon’s convenience but do they love its products that much. Focus group of one, but I’ve had bad experiences with their hardware - the Kids Kindles are garbage. Why do I want this?
How exactly does this help Amazon make a much bigger push into TV advertising? I get that more distribution of the Fire app store, whether through Fire Sticks to Fire TVs gives Amazon more App ads to sell. But to really transform things, Amazon needs way more access to inventory and permission to sell it, right?
Could Amazon launch a skinny bundle to go with it?
Are they going to go much bigger with the free, ad-supported IMDB? They could invest heavily in exclusive originals to make that really stand out and help the TVs sell -which would give Amazon more ad inventory. But that’s kind of weird when they are also about to roll out a Lord of the Rings show for the ad-free Netflix wannabe Amazon Prime - right?
Could Amazon start making shows based on the analytics it would get from TVs, assuming they sold a lot?
What if they spend a bazillion to get something like NFL Sunday Ticket and these TVs were the only way to get it?
Could Amazon start doing dynamic ad insertion into linear TV by ‘reading’ who is watching and ‘seeing’ what is on? Other TV manufacturers want to do this, but you gotta have permission from the networks before you start jamming new ads into breaks on TNT or whichever network is on, right?
Should Amazon either buy a few cable networks or a cable distributor like Comcast (hey, why not?) so they can start experimenting at greater scale with TV ads?
Could Amazon use TVs to push Twitch more front and center in CTV?
Would they let people watch YouTube on these TVs? Or Apple TV? You have to right?
Is this bad for Nielsen?
Why not just give these TVs away, or sell them for like $50, so you can drive up market share fast?
I want to start sending this newsletter every week. Do you think I can pull it off?
Why is the art so lame?
What am I forgetting?
I don't know the answers to most of these questions. I do think that Amazon's potential end game (in ads) is to own and control the whole customer journey from branding to purchase and back, and to offer advertisers the ability to optimize at each step. They then offer a 'closed loop' customer journey; a brand 'supply chain' if you like.
If this helps them with that in terms of them being able to access branding on the screen without having to sell ads through Prime, that would make sense.