Yesterday’s announcement of a deal struck between Amazon’s Prime Video and Internet nerd darlings, Critical Role provides a window into the strategies being adopted by Critical Role Productions LLC as well as that of Amazon which owns Prime Video, Twitch and the Amazon store.
For those who have been following my occasional posts on Critical Role, you will be aware they are a self-described ‘bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors who play D&D (Dungeons & Dragons)’ who are pioneers in the online video content space. They are part of a select few independent creators who have succeeded in monetising their intellectual property having first provided it for free on aggregators such as YouTube and Twitch. This makes their next steps important to watch for other independent creators seeking to monetise their video content.
Similarly, the steps taken by Amazon, the other party in the deal, informs the rapidly changing media landscape on the larger scale, with many large entities making forays into Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), such as Disney (Disney+) and Apple (Apple TV+).
Following Critical Role’s record-breaking Kickstarter campaign in April of this year, it was just a matter of time before a deal was announced for this series to be picked up by a large media player. Raising US$11.39 million (AU$16.55 million), the campaign set a record for most-funded film or TV project on Kickstarter. With so much proven interest, the only questions remaining were ‘who’ would pick it up and ‘how much’?
Amazon’s Prime Video have purchased exclusive streaming rights to two seasons (24 episodes) of “Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina”.
Demonstrating Amazon’s faith in Critical Role’s creative team (or its die-hard fan-base, known as ‘Critters’), this is 14 more episodes than the 10 funded through the Kickstarter campaign. Additionally, Amazon Studios have signed a ‘first-look’ deal with Critical Role to develop new content to premiere exclusively on Prime Video worldwide. Obvious candidates for future content can be seen on Critical Role’s Twitch and YouTube channels in the form of its second D&D campaign, The Might Nein, and a new four-part series, Undeadwood, a fantasy/Western role-playing spin on the HBO series, Deadwood.
Critical Role Productions LLC’s Strategy
This decision by the Critical Role team, led by Travis Willingham and Sam Riegel (actors in the Critical Role series as well as founding members of Critical Role Productions LLC; Willingham recently took over as CEO from Dungeon Master, Matt Mercer) provides a peek into their strategy, as well as providing a data point on product/market fit in the fast-changing screen business environment.
Firstly, by agreeing to sign with Amazon’s Prime Video, Critical Role have stuck with one of the ‘new’ screen media entities. Perhaps it is no surprise that it is a new screen entity that recognises CR’s value above conventional broadcast media, or even ‘traditional’ cable networks, but we will discuss Amazon’s strategic perspective below. Traditional broadcast television has generally found it difficult to value internet content. But with Critical Role’s Kickstarter campaign surpassing previous records set by broadcast television hits ‘Veronica Mars’ and ‘Mystery Theatre 3000’, there was at least a strong numerical proxy that Critical Role’s content might succeed on broadcast television.
In the absence of deal amounts, one might speculate that Amazon offered more money than other interested parties. Even if this is the case – and it might be - I would be sceptical that this is the only factor determining the CR team’s decision.
The reason is that the Critical Role team are actors and many have aspirations beyond a successful YouTube channel. In fact, Ashley Johnson, founding cast member (in fact, Johnson was the person who pitched it to Geek & Sundry’s Felicia Day) from the outset of Critical Role (as a program on the Geek & Sundry YouTube channel) has frequently been absent due to her prioritisation of her broadcast television career, featuring as a regular in NBC’s drama, ‘Blindspot’. ***SPOILER ALERT – (Skip to the next paragraph if you aren’t caught up yet). This regular absence is the reason Dungeon Master (DM) Matt Mercer has this year instituted a plot that has absented Ashley Johnson’s character, Yasha Nydoorin.
Consequently, the Amazon deal with its ‘first look’ component, offers the potential for greater creative expression for the team.
From a monetary perspective, I have long argued that the near-zero cost of duplication and distribution of digital content means the content itself will be difficult to monetise (a function of supply and demand, with supply being nearly infinite). However, non-digital aspects e.g. merchandise, live shows etc, can be valuable to a dedicated niche following, leveraging Internet strengths of distribution and discovery. Consequently, whoever Critical Role Productions LLC partnered would ideally have a means of enhancing these monetisation channels. Amazon, with its online store makes an excellent partner for Critical Role in this regard.
Amazon’s Strategy
In analysing Amazon’s video strategy, we should start by recognising it is different to many other screen content providers, in that it is not strictly seeking a viewing audience or even a subscription viewing audience per se. Amazon’s main strategy with Prime Video is to make their Amazon Prime subscription offering more attractive. With its origins in its online store, Amazon Prime offers, in the first instance, a 2-day domestic delivery service, free standard international delivery on eligible orders over $49. It now also includes subscriptions to Amazon Prime Video, Prime Reading and Twitch Prime: https://www.amazon.com.au/prime. In other words, Amazon’s video strategy is ‘orthogonal’ to that of most other screen content providers. It is one reason why I predict Amazon Prime Video will be one of the survivors in the emerging SVOD wars described above, with the key metric to watch the impact of Prime Video upon overall Amazon Prime subscriptions.
Amazon’s Prime Video also arguably has an intelligence advantage on Critical Role over other screen content providers e.g.:-
- Critical Role livestreams from Twitch. Amazon owns Twitch
- A large amount of Critical Role merchandise is sold through the Amazon store: e.g. https://www.amazon.com/critical-role/s?k=critical+role
Today’s deal is a reflection of the new screen market working efficiently, and shrewd strategic choices by both sides of the deal. Independent content creators Critical Role have found a partner that doesn’t necessarily provide them with the biggest audience, but does provides them with a promising avenue for creative expression and can also value (and potentially accelerate) their merchandising revenue streams.
The only remaining aspect left untouched by this deal are the experiential facets, such as CR’s live shows which have sold out in places like New York’s 4000-seat United Palace at around US$100 per ticket. Watch this space.