Amazon is jumping into news as it closes in on a deal with Brian Williams

Brian Williams is nearing a deal to host an election-night special on Amazon Prime Video.

Veteran newscaster Brian Williams is nearing completion of a deal with Amazon to host an election-night special on Prime Video, three people close to the situation told B-17. Two said they expected it be broadcast globally and ad-free.

These people were granted anonymity to speak freely about private deal talks. Their identities are known to B-17.

Details of the special have been trickling out over the past few days in outlets like Variety and CNN, although Amazon has not confirmed the deal and it’s possible it won’t come to fruition.

News of the potential deal has sparked questions in the industry about whether the tech giant plans to expand as deeply into news as it has with filmed entertainment and sports.

The people close to the deal talks rebuffed the idea that Amazon would build its own news operation, however. They said Amazon sees the special as another way to amass big audiences, as it has done with the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” and other sports. The special has the potential to reach more than 200 million viewers, which is Prime Video’s monthly reach, according to Amazon’s most recent public disclosure.

If it goes well, Amazon could repeat the approach with other big news events, one of the people close to the deal talks said. Those events could include the presidential inauguration or State of the Union address, this person predicted.

“It’s a toe in the water for them in that they’re trying to get beyond sports to other, seasonal special types of events,” this person said. “There’s news-adjacent programming they could do.”

Two of the people close to the deal talks said the election-night special was expected to be ad-free. No final decisions have been made, though. But Amazon and other tech-rooted streamers have seen how live programming, like comedy specials and awards shows, creates appointment viewing that can be highly attractive to advertisers. Advertisers, and especially marketers with time-sensitive product launches, have shown a willingness to pay high prices to reach large live audiences. Amazon this year turned on ads in Prime Video, gunning for the nearly $70 billion in annual TV ad spending.

For Amazon, specifically, filmed entertainment and sports programming — part of Prime Video — also serves to keep people subscribing to its lucrative Prime service and get people to shop more on the platform. Prime Video’s 2023 Black Friday NFL game, for example, showed QR codes during breaks to promote deals on the site.

“It fits in with their interest in disruptions and amassing big audiences,” the second person close to the deal talks said. “They want to be in the big-event business.”

News has been slow to shift to streaming

Big champions of the election-night special within Amazon include Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, and his powerful No. 2, Albert Cheng, vice president of Prime Video US. Hopkins has played a role in Prime Video’s aggressive expansion into sports, which has created tension with some on the entertainment side who see the sports investment coming at the expense of film and TV budgets.

If the deal goes through, the special would be produced by Jonathan Wald, a veteran TV news producer who executive-produced Williams’ “11th Hour” on MSNBC and has lately focused on new news formats. He helped Don Lemon launch shows on social media, for example. Williams’ reps at talent agency CAA have also been involved.

While entertainment and sports have shifted to streaming, news has been slower to follow. Legacy broadcasters like NBC News and ABC News have invested in live-streamed content; CNN has planned a streaming subscription service, but it’s had starts and stops.

Tech companies with streaming services have generally steered clear of news — not surprisingly, given the high cost of operating a newsroom and how polarizing news can be.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, in a recent interview, rejected the idea of the streamer covering breaking news. Apple TV+ drifted into news-adjacent programming in 2020 with Jon Stewart, who hosted a weekly comedy news show. But Stewart walked away after two seasons, saying Apple increasingly wanted more oversight of the show’s editorial direction.

Amazon, for its part, wants to bring a down-the-middle presentation of election results hosted by Williams with a lineup of exclusive contributors. To lend a nonpartisan feel, the plan is that the presenters won’t call the race and will point viewers to third-party content (which could include sites like CNN and NBC News that are available through Amazon Channels). The event would be broadcast from LA, allowing it to run late into the night.

And while some elements would be familiar to a news audience, Amazon is expected to put its own twist on the potential presentation, similar to how it souped up the production of “Thursday Night Football” with on-screen overlays that predict what might happen next.