Rolling off its deal with Altice’s SFR in August, Amazon has scored a distribution agreement with Free, another major French telco group.
Amazon Prime will be included in the Freebox Delta plan priced at €5.99 ($6.65) per month, at no additional cost. The bundled offer gives subscribers access to Amazon Original series and other movies and TV shows such as “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” “The Man in the High Castle,” and French exclusives such as Jerôme Commandeur’s “Tout en douceur,” “Into the Dark” and “Raphaël Varane: Destin de Champion.” These are all available in HD and 4K HDR.
Along with Prime Video, the Free offer also gives members access to Prime Music; Amazon.fr shipping; e-books with Prime Reading; photo storage with Amazon Photos; benefits for gamers with Twitch Prime; and early access to select Lightning Deals. As announced last month, Free will also be distributing Amazon Channels which are being included in the Freebox Delta plan.
While the full offer is available only to new Amazon Prime members, existing Amazon Prime subscribers will have the option to use their current account to access the Prime Video interface from the Freebox Delta and Prime Music with Amazon Alexa.
A subsidiary of Iliad Group, Free boasted nearly 20 million subscribers in France (6.4 million broadband subscribers and 13.3 million mobile phone subscribers) as of June. Free launched its mobile network in Italy in May of last year and has become that country’s fourth-largest operator, with more than 3.8 million subscribers as of June.
Like SFR, Free has its own SVOD offer which includes mobile, Internet and pay TV, as well as a large library of films and TV series available on VOD.
Amazon has been ramping up its distribution across Europe through partnerships with key telcos. Amazon Prime Video, which rolled out in more than 200 territories in December 2016, recently signed deals with British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Telecom Italia, Orange Spain, Vodafone, Telefonica and Liberty Global/Virgin Media, among others.
Source: https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/amazon-prime-video-distribution-free-france-telecom-1203386076/