Meet The Prime Video Exec Leading Amazon’s New European Push

EXCLUSIVE: You won’t have heard of Ritchie Ordonez, however she’s quietly turn into among the many most necessary gamers in European streaming.

Earlier this 12 months, as Amazon was making cuts throughout its leisure companies throughout a significant spherical of worldwide restructuring, Ordonez was named head of Prime Video EU Emerging — a cluster of nations Amazon had recognized as the brand new development drivers in Europe that will sit reverse a gaggle of nations on the continent the place Prime Video is a family title.

Internally, workers have been instructed that funding was coming to Benelux, the CEE and the Nordics, with Africa and the Middle East the unlucky hubs that will lose out consequently. In her first interview because the transfer, Ordonez doesn’t touch upon how the adjustments performed out however as an alternative outlines her imaginative and prescient for the Netherlands, the Nordic international locations, Turkey and Poland — although she is actually normal supervisor of all European territories outdoors of the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain.

Within Amazon, her unit is now being known as EU Expansion (EUX), maybe a clearer indicator of the path of journey. However, Ordonez has, in reality, successfully been engaged on the initiative since June 2020, when she relocated from the U.S. to Munich, Germany, to supervise advertising and marketing within the EU Expansion international locations. She was upped to a normal supervisor publish two years later and took management of Benelux, the CEE and Turkey — and has since targeted on investing in international locations the place Prime Video has acted as a set off for Prime retail subscriptions.

Moving cash from the MENA area and Africa — “rebalancing” assets as Prime Video’s VP & GM for EMEA, Barry Furlong, awkwardly put it to workers on the time — left native producers in these areas dissatisfied to lose a key purchaser simply because it was getting began. Indeed, Amazon had struck offers in Africa with the likes of Inkblot Studios and Jáde Osiberu and launched its first unique, Gangs of Lagos, in 2023 as a part of what had been described to Deadline as “continued, long-term funding in sub-Saharan Africa.” Once the mud had settled, Prime Video started utilizing the transferred money to extend native acquisitions and originals within the EUX territories. Accordingly, Ordonez fronted a ‘Prime Video Presents…’ showcase in Poland simply final week.

So why haven’t we heard extra from her? The reply is just because she’s been within the background, squirrelling away on technique and overseeing developments in areas reminiscent of UX, dubbing and acquisitions. “We have been in a pure building stage over the last two years,” Ordonez tells Deadline. “The change for me this year is taking on the Nordics and the bifurcation of the European business. We found a lot consistency in some of the playbooks across territories and have experimented on how we could scale that to meet our content needs, but in a sustainable way.”

Amazon’s European trip

Prime Video has been in Europe, in a single type or one other, because it acquired UK DVD leases and streaming service Lovefilm in 2011. A world launch adopted nearly precisely eight years in the past on December 14, 2016, and the SVoD turned a key participant within the streaming arms race that adopted. Earlier this 12 months, Amazon’s transfer to downsize its leisure enterprise and minimize prices noticed Europe cut up in two, with Ordonez main rising territories and Brigitte Ricou-Bellan taking over the established UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and France, often known as EU5. Though the growth cluster acquired new funding, we revealed Amazon was axing slightly below 5% of its Prime Video Europe workers within the restructing. Amazon hasn’t instantly commented on the specifics of the layoffs.

Ordonez says she and the UK-based Ricou-Bellan are “attached at the hip” as they work by the following phases of Prime Video’s European journey. Neither come from content material backgrounds — Ordonez got here up by advertising and marketing and Bellan-Ricou by a boardroom-focused profession. “We work very closely together — I spend more time with her than I do my husband,” jokes Ordonez. However, she acknowledges that the “much more mature” EU5 is on a “very different journey” with extra sturdy content material investments. “We realized we needed a very different playbook.”

The necessity to put in writing the foundations of a brand new “playbook” is clear. Streaming in Europe has modified considerably over current years, as studios refocus on profitability over subs development. Paramount+ and HBO Max (now Max) each rowed again from native commissioning pushes, and whereas Netflix, Amazon and Disney continued with originals, the order ebook is extra scrutinized than ever. Last week, HBO boss Casey Bloys instructed journalists in London that Max is again available in the market for European originals, nevertheless it isn’t but clear precisely how that may play out. For Prime Video’s EUX enterprise, which Ordonez notes is offering “all meaningful growth in Europe,” the problem is obvious.

“There is a game to win in these countries,” she says. “Our goal is to grow sustainably with a path to profitability. These are meaningful countries, but they’re smaller than EU5, so it’s about looking at bespoke content needs. It’s about giving the customers the same robust content slate, but with more efficient ways of building that.”

In Poland, essentially the most nascent of Prime Video EUX’s key territories, final week signalled a giant second, with a content material showcase that includes docs about singer Doda and Polish soccer star Wojciech Szczęsny, new unscripted reveals Rap Generation and The 50 and additional particulars on Season 3 of comedy actuality present LOL: Last One Laughing. “People forget that we are there because we’ve been working in the background, so this is something of our debut, and our chance to highlight the content we are making,” says Ordonez. “I hope folks walked away understanding that.

“It’s only really the last two years we’ve been doing originals in Poland. It’s the newest for us from an investment perspective, along with Turkey, and there’s still lots to learn. We’re really early in our journey, but it’s exciting and it’s what I love about Amazon: I never would have thought I’d live in Europe or have this kind of role.”

The benefit for Prime Video EUX is it has been “able to learn what is working in other territories,” says Ordonez. For instance, Japanese format LOL: Last One Laughing (aka Documental) has been remade throughout the Prime Video footprint, together with within the Nordics the place there are variations in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and the Netherlands and Turkey. “We know comedy is a great way to tap into the local audience and it complements what we have on the scripted side of our global slate,” she provides.

Notable reveals from the Netherlands embody Jorik, a doc that tells the story of infamous Dutch rapper and actor Jorik Scholten (aka Lil’ Kleine), and comedy collection De Tatta’s, a couple of wealthy household who discover themselves broke. From Turkey are the likes of Blue Cave (Mavi Magara), a couple of Navy soldier who makes a visit to honor his late spouse, whereas the Nordic area has spawned the likes of sport sod Ingebritsen – Born to Run, crime drama STHLM Blackout and Q1 2025 will see the launch of thriller drama collection Blindspar (Blind Spot) and The Commoner.

Program licensing and pay-one movie acquisitions have additionally been a key within the Nordics, Netherlands, Poland and Turkey with the viewers within the latter significantly eager on native scripted films. In the Nordics, the acquisition of 9 Viaplay originals — comprising Bullshit, The Commoner, The Fortress, In the Name of Love, Jana – Marked for Life, Paradis City, Solo/Dancing Alone, Furia Season Two and Those Who Kill Season Four — was “a great way to add scripted to the slate and build a robust offer there,” says Ordonez. This got here after Viaplay pulled out of the manufacturing recreation.

The plan for originals in every nation Ordonez takes care of is round six to eight per 12 months, although that could possibly be decrease in Turkey, the place inflation has meant it’s “challenging trying to calibrate investments,” she says. “Having around that number again helps us to complement that global slate with some local flavor, and that’s fairly consistent in most territories.”

Testing fashions

Anyone who’s been to a TV trade occasion or has been studying Deadline’s worldwide protection up to now 12 months will know co-productions have gotten more and more the norm at world streamers, as they search to search out methods to adapt their slates whereas not breaking the financial institution. For Prime Video EUX, that is an possibility that’s being explored. “The reality is we’re open,” says Ordonez. “We know we have to work leaner in those countries, so we’re pretty flexible on the models. We have co-produced in the Nordics and partnered with broadcasters in the Netherlands.”

Beyond that, EUX will comply with the mannequin Prime Video has established elsewhere, for instance, trying to mixture different providers (Max is obtainable within the Netherlands and SkyShowtime in Poland) or add extra networks to Prime Video Channels. Movies and collection supplied through rental are additionally supplied to make Prime Video “a first-stop entertainment destination,” as Ordonez calls it.

Meanwhile, Fallout has been hit in most EUX territories due to the robust gaming cultures within the international locations. “That makes us very excited about more of those gaming franchises like Tomb Raider and God of War coming to the service,” says Ordonez. Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Reacher, Anne Hathaway romcom The Idea of You and The Summer I Turned Pretty have all confirmed in style, together with German hit Maxton Hall: The World Between Us, which has been killing it on the platform and highlights a rising want for European content material, in line with Ordonez. To that finish, Prime Video just lately launched Spanish zombie horror Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End (aka Apocalipsis Z: El Principio Del Fin), and it carried out robust within the EUX international locations. In Turkey, Korean collection Marry My Husband, which was co-produced with native streamer TVING, landed properly. “These programs are really starting to travel,” says Ordonez.

On the film entrance, she notes, “A lot cinemas haven’t bounced back in the way they would have liked post-Covid, and supporting that sector is important.” This means working with native exhibitors, distributors and producers, and being versatile sufficient to offer movies theatrical home windows when wanted. “During Covid, we had a lot of films that we had to launch direct-to-streaming just by virtue of there being no cinemas open, and we’ve seen the outcome on both of those methods,” says Ordonez.

“We don’t see any cannibalization, frankly, when we have theatrical launches. In fact, a lot of those titles bring in new customers, even if they have a TVoD window on Prime Video. It’s so fragmented and people have so little time, but there is still a massive audience to tap into, and so we’re open to any of those models. Producers are excited about having that theatrical presence and that works, but other titles have gone direct-to-streaming and that’s been successful, too.”

Looking forward, Andrew Bennett is about to exchange Barry Furlong on the head of Amazon Europe’s Prime Video groups. Prime Video VP of International Kelly Day mentioned just lately the long-serving Bennett, who’s relocating from the U.S., would convey acumen in “content acquisition, partnerships and business development, marketing, and product/tech” to the position. Ordonez isn’t commenting forward of the change, nevertheless it’s understood Prime Video Europe is taking a ‘business as usual’ strategy earlier than Bennett’s imaginative and prescient for the enterprise takes form.

What she’s going to say of 2025 is that she expects her key problem to be “keeping up with the volume, and trying to figure out the models.” There could possibly be extra opportunistic offers such because the Viaplay settlement so as to add scripted to the slate, to offset “risky and expensive” unique manufacturing, whereas on the unscripted entrance she factors to how native variations of LOL have led to contestants touchdown Prime Video specials and constructing out their personalities. “That has really captured the local culture,” she provides.

“If in 12 months’ time we can say the growth has continued and we’ve added to the slate with local originals, that would be a success, along with growing the channels and TVOD,” concludes Ordonez. “Getting the content right is the most challenging thing — you don’t have a lot of shots at that. We have to be thoughtful about it and we’re learning from all of the things we’ve launched.”

Ordonez and co will quickly get the prospect to use that information to the following stage of EUX’s lifecycle.