Amazon reveals how Prime Video could be hit by Brexit

Chris Bird, head of content for Europe at Amazon Prime Video, has revealed how it expects Brexit to impact its streaming service.

Giving evidence to the Digital, Media, Culture and Sports Committee in parliament, Bird told MPs: “Brexit will affect Prime Video in a couple of different ways.

“Prime Video’s European HQ is located in London and we intend to keep that HQ in London post-Brexit regardless (of if there is a deal or no-deal).”

He added: “We will continue our investment in the UK and grow our investment in the UK and the EU. Brexit will introduce some regulatory complexity, for example in the event of audio visual not being included in any trade deal, we imagine Ofcom will no longer be able to regulate us pan-EU, so we will need to find a new EU territory of origin and our EU businesses will need to be regulated by the regulator in that country.

“We also think there is an important issue around UK content being affected by loss of EU work status.

“If UK content could no longer be considered EU in terms of quotas then our business in Europe will need to change their content catalogue to add more European content as a result, that is not necessarily a big challenge for us but we are concerned this could be a challenge for smaller independent UK content producers because it would mean the diminishment in the value of their content in the EU.”