The Week Kick-off: Amazon moves home, Google weighs up locations
Amazon moves Lord of the Rings from New Zealand to the UK, Disney picks up subscribers on the global, Google weighs up working from home, and Conde Nast Health talks to us exclusively about their new Twitter-first video series. It’s fast, it’s free, and it’s the start of a new week in The Fellowship of the Media…
Amazon doubles down on UK studio focus
Amazon Studios announced last week that it is shifting production of its Lord of the Rings series from New Zealand to the UK, where the second season will be filmed. In a statement, the company said:
‘The shift from New Zealand to the UK aligns with the studio’s strategy of expanding its production footprint and investing in studio space across the UK, with many of Amazon Studios’ tentpole series and films already calling the UK home… The highly anticipated The Lord of the Rings series recently wrapped principal photography on season one in New Zealand and is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video in more than 240 countries around the world on Friday, September 2, 2022.’
Disney+ adds 12m subscribers
Meanwhile, Disney+ reported an increase of 12 million subscribers in the third quarter of its fiscal year, taking the platform’s global subscriber base up to 116 million, ahead of analyst estimates. The company’s theme parks are also said to have returned to profitability during the period. At the FIPP D2C Summit earlier this year, we spoke to Molly Brady, SVP Growth Marketing at Disney Streaming Services, about the streaming service’s runaway success.
Google weighs up working from home
According to a number of outlets including the BBC, Google has introduced a ‘pay calculator’ that allows employees to see the effects of working remotely vs moving offices. Seemingly a US-focussed initiative in the first instance, a Google spokesperson said:
“Our compensation packages have always been determined by location, and we always pay at the top of the local market based on where an employee works from. Our new Work Location Tool was developed to help employees make informed decisions about which city or state they work from and any impact on compensation if they choose to relocate or work remotely.”
Condé Nast Health on introducing its new series of Twitter-first videos
Conde Nast Health recently rolled out Health X, a new series of Twitter-first videos, which has been designed to accompany the brand’s best health content. Last week, in this exclusive interview for FIPP, Carrie Moore, Head of Sales for Condé Nast Health, talked us through the product, the benefits for advertisers, and how the video series is helping to drive innovation alongside other new developments like the company’s cookie-less targeting solution.
“This is all editorial content,” Moore explains. “It’s informed by Twitter insights and leverages some of our most successful content formats. We’re playing to our strengths by combining our high-quality content and deep health storytelling with the social conversations that are trending in the moment.” Full article here.
