Amazon adds Apple TV+ to US channels store, offering popular shows

By Lucas Shaw and Caroline Hyde

Amazon.com Inc. is adding Apple Inc.’s TV+ streaming service to its channels store in the US, offering hits such as Ted Lasso and Slow Horses in its video supermarket for the first time.

Apple will begin selling TV+ subscriptions through Prime later this month, Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Amazon Prime Video, said Wednesday at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles.

“What we offer channel partners is hundreds of millions of subscribers around the world,” Hopkins said. “Having this engagement around the world with Prime Members accessing Prime Video is a real great platform for other partners to be able to reach them.”

Amazon markets more than 100 streaming services via its channels store, enabling customers to watch shows from Max, Paramount+ and Hallmark within Prime Video. Those services rely on Amazon to expand their audience.

Apple TV+ was one of the only major streaming services not available in the store, along with Netflix and Walt Disney Co.’s main properties. Those two are among the few with streaming services that have more viewers than Prime Video.

Apple has invested billions of dollars in original programming over the last few years, earning industry awards and critical praise. But its streaming service has yet to attract as many subscribers as Netflix and Amazon.

The agreement expands an existing relationship between the companies. In 2017, Amazon started offering a Prime Video app on the Apple TV set-top box, while Prime Video is integrated into the Apple TV app across the iPhone maker’s device lineup. The two companies are also retail partners, with Apple offering an official store via Amazon.com.

Hopkins also said he expects more consolidation in the media industry and that Amazon’s streaming service will be profitable “very soon.”

Earlier in the evening Cristobal Valenzuela, co-founder of AI startup Runway, gave a demonstration of his company’s technology, which lets movie and TV show producers render lifelike images for partners like Lions Gate Entertainment. Valenzuela said actors, writers and other artists shouldn’t fear the new technology.

“You never watch a movie because how it was made, you watch a movie because it’s a good story,” he said. “We want to make sure we can help tell those stories.”