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Amazon Prime video reportedly had 26 million viewers in 2017

Amazon's shows and movies are attracting more Prime subscribers, according to reports.

Alfred Ng Senior Reporter / CNET News
Alfred Ng was a senior reporter for CNET News. He was raised in Brooklyn and previously worked on the New York Daily News's social media and breaking news teams.
Alfred Ng
2 min read
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Amazon Prime shows reportedly drew in 26 million viewers in early 2017.

David Katzmaier/CNET

Up to 5 million people came for the TV shows and stayed for the Amazon Prime.

Amazon has been quiet about how many viewers watch shows on Prime Video, but internal documents released to Reuters show that the retail giant had 26 million US customers in early 2017. By comparison, Netflix had about 55 million subscribers in the US in the last quarter of 2017.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. 

In the internal documents, Reuters reported that original shows like "The Man in the High Castle" had 8 million viewers and drew more than 1 million new subscribers to Amazon. 

While Amazon is primarily known as a massive online retailer, founder Jeff Bezos has expanded into territory like smart voice assistants and health care. Entertainment is another avenue to attract more customers to the shopping giant, with Amazon budgeting $4.5 billion for streaming content in 2017. 

The strategy is to draw new customers in to watch movies and shows, and keep them there as Prime subscribers. 

"We think it's working," Amazon's finance chief Brian Olsavsky said on a call with reporters last April. We're very bullish on what we're seeing both with how customers are responding and the quality of the content."

According to the internal documents, Amazon's shows were able to draw in 5 million new subscribers in 2017.

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