Amazon will grow to be the most recent member of the Motion Picture Association next month, adding its tech industry clout to the Hollywood lobbying group.
Amazon is each a streamer and a conventional studio, operating Prime Video and MGM Studios, which it bought for $8.5 billion in 2021. Its decision to hitch the MPA is a logo of the convergence of entertainment and Big Tech, which were separated by a pointy divide not that way back.
“Amazon’s mission is to entertain customers around the globe with compelling film and tv,” said Mike Hopkins, the top of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. “In an effort to try this, we must support storytellers, while also helping to sustain a strong entertainment industry that works for each studios and our creative partners. We’re proud to join the MPA and its member studios of their collective efforts to protect creators, content, and consumers worldwide.”
Amazon will grow to be the seventh member of the MPA, which already includes Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros., NBCUniversal, Paramount and Sony. Netflix joined in 2019.
MGM was a member from 1928 until 2005, when Sony bought the corporate in an ill-fated merger.
Amazon has already worked alongside the MPA as a member of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, a broader entity that seeks to go after digital piracy. It also participates within the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which handles collective bargaining on behalf of the key studios.
The MPA is the industry’s voice in Washington, D.C., advocating on issues like copyright and piracy. The organization also has a presence overseas and in state capitals, where it lobbies for state tax incentives to lure production.
“The MPA is the worldwide voice for a growing and evolving industry, and welcoming Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios to our ranks will broaden our collective policymaking and content protection efforts on behalf of our most progressive and inventive corporations,” Charles Rivkin, Chairman and CEO of the MPA, said in a press release. “MPA studios fuel local economies, drive job creation, enrich cultures, and bolster communities in all places they work. With Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios amongst our roster of extraordinary members, the MPA can have a good larger voice for the world’s biggest storytellers.”
The MPA briefly had seven members in 2019, but was reduced back to 6 when Disney merged with Twentieth Century Fox.
