Q&A with Amazon Studios Chief Jennifer Salke on her content acquisition strategy, potentially broadcasting a ceremony such as the Oscars one day, and more
The studio head opened up about her Sundance buying spree, blockbuster ambitions and the secret room where Amazon's 'Lord …
Context & Ripple Effects
A year into the job, Jennifer Salke is laying out her playbook publicly. She arrived at Amazon Studios in February 2018 after Roy Price's resignation, inheriting a shop that had spent 2017 weathering lackluster releases and strained producer relationships. Her answer has been to buy aggressively — the Sundance spree she describes here continues the original-movies push Jeff Bezos launched back in 2015, but with a network-TV buyer's instinct for volume.
The more forward-leaning signal in the interview is her openness to broadcasting a ceremony like the Oscars. That would move Amazon beyond its on-demand library into live prestige television, territory where rival streamers are also circling.
First-order effects
- Sundance sellers now face Amazon as one of the most aggressive check-writers in Park City, giving indie filmmakers a deep-pocketed alternative to theatrical distributors — and giving Salke's slate the prestige titles the studio lacked during its 2017 stumble.
- Salke's stated blockbuster ambitions set internal expectations for Amazon Studios output: fewer niche arthouse bets, more wide-release originals competing directly with theatrical studios.
Second-order effects
- If Amazon chases awards-ceremony broadcast rights, it enters live-event bidding against traditional networks — and against Netflix, whose chief Ted Sarandos discussed his own live-events ambitions in a parallel Q&A, turning trophies-and-telecasts into another streaming arms race.
- Rival festival buyers face rising acquisition prices wherever Amazon bids, since a platform buying for global Prime reach can outbid distributors pricing for domestic box office alone.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, streamers evolve from subscription video libraries into full-service broadcasters that own live tentpoles — eroding the last clear boundary between tech platforms and legacy television networks.
- Studio leadership becomes the strategic variable: as Salke's hire showed, tech companies now import network-TV executives to run their content arms, making executive poaching a core competitive move in streaming.
The trend: Streaming platforms are expanding from on-demand catalogs into live-event broadcasting and festival-driven acquisition, with former network executives leading the charge.