Amazon’s chief executive, Andy Jassy, says Prime Video now makes money on its own account. On the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday 29 October, he told analysts the streamer brings in tens of billions of dollars a year on an annualised basis and is “now profitable in its own right”, according to Variety’s report of the call. Amazon gave no figures to back the claim: it does not report Prime Video’s revenue or profit as a separate line.
What it does disclose is the cost of its content. In its quarterly filing, published on Friday 30 October, Amazon said total video and music expense came to $5.9bn in July–September, up from $5.5bn a year earlier, a rise of about 7%. Over the first nine months of 2026 the figure was $18.8bn, against $15.7bn in the same period of 2025, an increase of about 20%.
Key facts
- Jassy says Prime Video is profitable, with annualised revenue running into the tens of billions (earnings call, 29 October)
- Video and music expense, Q3 2026: $5.9bn, up from $5.5bn
- Video and music expense, January–September 2026: $18.8bn, up from $15.7bn
- Subscription services revenue, Q3 2026: $14.0bn, up 11% from $12.6bn
- Amazon MGM Studios’ 2026 global box office so far: more than $1.2bn, by Amazon’s count
What the filing shows
Amazon books Prime membership fees and its digital video subscriptions together under subscription services, a line that also covers music, audiobooks and e-books. That line brought in $14.0bn in the third quarter, up from $12.6bn. Advertising services, which include video advertising such as the ads shown to Prime Video viewers, rose to $19.6bn from $17.7bn. Neither number isolates the streamer, which is why Jassy’s claim cannot yet be checked.
The balance sheet gives another measure of the bet. Capitalised video and music content, mostly film and TV already released, stood at $22.5bn on 30 September, up from $21.3bn at the end of 2025.
Across the group, net sales rose 12% to $201.9bn and operating income to $28.1bn, from $17.4bn. Amazon said the timing of Prime Day, held mostly in the second quarter this year, had held back third-quarter growth by about four percentage points.
Shows, sport and the studio
The results release listed the entertainment highlights Amazon wanted investors to notice. The fourth season of Reacher drew 66 million viewers worldwide in its first 28 days, by the company’s own count. Thursday Night Football, in its fifth season on Prime Video, averaged 17.7 million viewers over its first six games according to Nielsen, its best start yet and 16% above last season’s full-season average. The second season of NBA coverage on Prime opened with a doubleheader that drew more than two million US viewers, more than twice last season’s full-season average, according to Nielsen.
On the film side, Amazon said Amazon MGM Studios has taken more than $1.2bn at the worldwide box office so far this year, led by Project Hail Mary and Verity. Jassy also named Carrie, The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Boys, Off Campus, Reacher and Fallout as series driving the service. Carrie, the new series adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, premiered on 7 October and logged more than 2.1 billion minutes viewed by 22 October, according to Luminate data cited by Variety.
Abroad, at TIFFCOM in Tokyo this week, Amazon MGM Studios said it would double its spending on Japanese originals, and in Germany Prime Video has hired Sasha Bühler to run its local originals.
Our reading
A profitability claim with no number attached is hard to test. Amazon has not said how it counts Prime Video’s revenue, and the membership fees that pay for the service also cover shipping and other Prime benefits. Still, the content line is the one that matters to producers and sellers. Video and music expense grew by about a fifth over nine months, well ahead of the 7% third-quarter rise, so most of this year’s increase came in the first half. Elsewhere in the US this week, Starz doubled its adjusted OIBDA and Marcus Theatres posted record third-quarter revenue. The next test is whether Amazon will put a number on it.