Source: Amazon weighs offering internet service in Europe in order to bundle broadband access with Prime Video
Amazon.com is considering offering internet service directly to consumers in Europe, said a person briefed on the discussion. That would allow Amazon to bundle internet access …
Context & Ripple Effects
This report extends a bundling arc Amazon has been building since late 2015: it first brought Showtime, Starz and other services into Prime as paid add-ons, then held early talks about a live online TV service with CBS and NBCUniversal. Adding consumer broadband in Europe would put the pipe itself inside the Prime bundle.
The logic follows from what came before — each layer (third-party subscriptions, live TV, now connectivity) makes Prime harder to cancel and gives Amazon more control over how Europeans reach its storefront and video service.
First-order effects
- European broadband providers would face a new competitor whose real product is retention: an ISP offer priced around keeping Prime members inside Amazon's ecosystem rather than around access margins.
- Prime Video's content partners gain a second bundling surface — the same revenue-sharing add-on model already applied to Showtime and Starz could ride on top of a broadband subscription.
Second-order effects
- Incumbent telecom operators would likely counter by deepening their own TV bundles or partnering with rival streamers, turning video exclusivity into an ISP differentiator.
- Content owners gain leverage either way: if Amazon owns the customer relationship end-to-end, partners may push for better terms than the current add-on revenue splits.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, subscription platforms converge on owning both connectivity and content, shifting competition from individual services to who controls the household's single bill.
- A US retailer entering European telecom would draw regulatory scrutiny over net neutrality and market dominance — the same concerns regulators apply when the bundle owner also runs the largest marketplace on the connection.
The trend: Subscription platforms are moving down the stack from content into connectivity, because whoever sells the broadband connection controls which video services survive on it.