Amazon buys MGM for $8.45 billion, paving the way for James Bond on Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video lags behind the likes of Netflix and Disney+ in terms of the amount of available content, but a new deal with MGM could quickly turn things around for Amazon’s streaming service.

Prime Video could eventually offer James Bond and Rocky

Amazon has reached a deal to acquire MGM for $8.45 billion. It means Amazon will be the proud owner of MGM’s entire back catalog of content, said to include over 4,000 movies and 17,000 TV shows.

Some of MGM’s biggest productions include James Bond and Rocky. However, the company is also responsible for the likes of Angry Men, Fargo, Robocop, Thelma & Louise, Tom Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Viking, among others.

Amazon has committed to helping preserve “MGM’s heritage and catalog of films” and says it will provide customers with “greater access” to existing content, presumably through its Prime Video service.

Prime Video comes included in an Amazon Prime membership. Prime has over 200 million customers worldwide, but most subscribe because of the shopping benefits and Prime Day, not access to Amazon’s streaming service.

Integrating MGM’s vast content library into Prime Video could encourage more customers to use the streaming platform, therefore boosting engagement levels. In the long run it should make Prime Video a more attractive service.