Top Gear trio weren’t “worth the money” says Netflix

Earlier this week, Variety reported that the iPhone maker has been holding talks with Hollywood executives to produce entertainment content. Allegedly, Apple wanted “to create development and production divisions that would churn out long-form content to stream in a bid to compete with Netflix”. It’s a tried-and-tested way to attract customers in the TV world, but Apple, Amazon, and other companies investing in exclusivity should know that it can destroy the value of content too.

They may have found a new home on Amazon Prime, but for a good while it was nearly a given that former Top Gear stars Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were headed for Netflix.

Industry sources say Clarkson will be paid far more generous than was previously estimated, pocketing £30million for the three 12-part series, due to air next autumn.

Whenever it became clear that Jeremy Clarksons firing fired from Top Gear meant that he and his co-hosts days on the BBC were over, no one thought for a second that it would actually be the last Wednesday see of the speed demon trio.

It may seem like a steep increase in price; especially compared to services like Netflix, who now charges $7.99 a month for their basic online streaming service. Original content has certainly played a major role in Netflix’s success.

While Netflix may have a much better selection when it comes to movies, the one thing that Hulu has always had the upper hand on is the now running television series.

The challenge for Amazon is that Top Gear’s popularity was built on a very different business model to the one the online retailer will employ.

The Top Gear brand will continue on BBC Two, with Chris Evans in charge. As a result, Top Gear has built an audience of 350 million in 214 territories, earning the broadcaster’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, between £50 million and £150 million in revenues, according to various media estimates.

Now Netflix’s Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt has claimed it used its own viewership data to decide whether it was worth signing on the dotted line.

Bezos, meanwhile, is confident viewers in the United Kingdom, and globally, are “going to love” Clarkson’s new show, although is keeping details under wraps until the January 2016 debut. We have a lot of data to get the deals we want, so there we go. But have viewers changed that much? “I think they sold themselves for way more money [than they’re worth]”, he added.