Amazon Video Direct: E-Commerce Giant Reveals Top-Performing Content Partners (EXCLUSIVE)

Since Amazon‘s launch in May of Amazon Video Direct, the company says users have streamed several billion minutes of video from its partners the service, which is open to any content creator or owner and provides multiple options for generating money from that video.

That’s likely less than the staggering amount of video gushing from the fire hoses of YouTube or Netflix. But Amazon Video Direct content partners say the program represents a noteworthy new platform that is letting them generate incremental revenue. And for the first time, the e-commerce behemoth has released the list of the best-performing movie titles, TV shows and digital partners the service — which Amazon is rewarding with extra cash doled out from a $1 million pool on a monthly basis, through its “AVD Stars” program.

Amazon Video Direct partners have four distribution options: They can make their content available to Prime Video subscribers and receive a per-hour royalty fee; sell it as an add-on subscription through the Amazon Channels program; offer it for digital rental or purchase; or make it available to all Amazon customers for free with ads, to receive a 55% share of the ad revenue (the same as YouTube).

For the month of August, Samuel Goldwyn Films had 10 of the 50 top-performing movies on AVD, including the top three titles: English drama “I Capture The Castle,” “Bad Ass” starring Danny Trejo and Charles S. Dutton, and comedy “Tortilla Soup.” Those are streaming through Prime Video, available to members for no additional cost.

The film distributor has seen “exceptional results” from Amazon Video Direct so far, said Samuel Goldwyn Films president Peter Goldwyn, although he did not reveal specific dollar figures. “With the catalog titles we’ve been put up to be accessible through Prime, that’s allowed them to get a second life.”

Currently, Samuel Goldwyn Films offers 29 catalog titles on AVD, along with 15 new releases like “Chicken People”; the new releases are available for rent or purchase. “Having the control over our content… they’ve made it more discoverable, and they’re pushing it to people who want to watch it,” said Goldwyn. “Compared with iTunes or Netflix, there are so many different ways to offer your product – you are not just tethered to one distribution mechanism.”

Comedy studio JASH has also seen positive returns from distributing original content on Amazon Video Direct, according to co-founder and COO Mickey Meyer. Top series on AVD include “Catherine,” “Teach,” “Tim and Eric’s GoPro Show,” and “ScheerRL,” and JASH has in the past month also released “Norm Macdonald Live” and “Tubbin with Tash.” Meyer founded JASH with Daniel Kellison, Doug DeLuca, along with partners Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera, Reggie Bush, Tim Heideker and Eric Wareheim.

Amazon Direct Video was interesting for JASH because its audience skews older than YouTube, and it provides a content-recommendation algorithm that suggests videos based on other videos you’ve watched, Meyer said.

“We’re seeing immediately that we have an audience there, and longer-form content works well,” he said. Whereas YouTube, with its massive amount of video, “is a needle in a haystack,” Amazon Direct Video “is much more of a curated experience. It makes it easier to get your content in front of the audience.”

The Amazon Video Direct Stars incentive program awards a share of $1 million in bonus cash each month to providers that self-publish content into Prime Video in the following categories: top 50 movie titles, top 10 TV seasons, and top 25 digital providers for all other eligible content types. The rankings are based on “customer engagement,” which Amazon calculates using a combination of metrics including hours viewed, streams and customer rating, and the $1 million kitty is distributed proportionately based on customer engagement (i.e., partners or titles with higher customer engagement receive a greater share of the award pool).

Here are the top partners and titles for August 2016:

Top 10 TV Seasons

1. “Robotech”: FilmRise
2. “The Price of Empire”: Alliant Content
3. “That Girl”: Stadium Media
4. “Judge Faith-First Stage Play; Bringing Down the House”: Veranda Entertainment
5. “The Terror Routes – The Countdown”: Alliant Content
6. “History’s Verdict: Hero or Villain? – De Gaulle”: Alliant Content
7. “Death Row: A History of Capital Punishment in America – Last Meals and Last Words”: Mill Creek Entertainment
8. “Pioneer Quest – Survivors Of The Real West”: Syndicado
9. “Colonel March of Scotland Yard – The New Invisible Man”: Multicom Entertainment Group
10. “America’s Serial Killers: Portraits in Evil – The Night Stalker and Jeffrey Dahmer”: Mill Creek Entertainment

Top 25 Digital Publishers

1. Amuse
2. Element Animation
3. Coilbook
4. William Anas
5. White Shark Studios
6. The Young Turks
7. JASH
8. Neta Haiby
9. Ekadsk Online Services
10. Aphotic Productions
11. Julian
12. Total Content Digital
13. Wilcko
14. Ginzburg Press
15. Rodenburg Films
16. HowStuffWorks
17. Moon Mountain Entertainment
18. Business Insider
19. Conde Nast Entertainment
20. Mashable
21. Magnetfilm GmbH
22. BrighterMoon
23. Kin Community
24. Wiley
25. StyleHaul

Top 50 Movie Titles

1. “I Capture The Castle”: Samuel Goldwyn Films
2. “Bad Ass”: Samuel Goldwyn Films
3. “Tortilla Soup”: Samuel Goldwyn Films
4. “After Braveheart”: Alliant Content
5. “Priceless”: Samuel Goldwyn Films
6. “Resurrection Science: Defying Evolution”: Alliant Content
7. “Little Big Man”: HDMedia Distribution Worldwide
8. “First Footprints: The Original Pioneers of All Humankind”: Alliant Content
9. “Goya’s Ghosts”: Samuel Goldwyn Films
10. “How to Colonize the Stars: The Challenge of Interstellar Flight”: Alliant Content
11. “Brat Academy”: Alliant Content
12. “Sticks and Stones”: Global Genesis Group
13. “Fart: A Documentary”: Vision Films
14. “Is This El Chapo?”: Asian Media Rights
15. “No Letting Go”: Vision Films
16. “Lila Says”: Samuel Goldwyn Films
17. “Automatic Brain: The Magic of the Unconscious Mind”: Alliant Content
18. “ETs Among Us: UFO Witnesses and Whistleblowers”: Prism Pictures
19. “Rio Lobo (1970)”: HDMedia Distribution Worldwide
20. “The Fantastical World of Hormones”: Alliant Content
21. “Animal 2”: Asian Media Rights
22. “In Memorium”: Amanda Gusack
23. “Swimming in Auschwitz”: Alliant Content
24. “Love by Design”: Stadium Media
25. “Happy”: Asian Media Rights
26. “My Daughter, Anne Frank”: Alliant Content
27. “Where Is Robert Fisher?”: Asian Media Rights
28. “Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School”: Samuel Goldwyn Films
29. “Dangerous Intentions”: Multicom Entertainment Group
30. “Without Charity”: Ten Wing Media
31. “Seven Girlfriends”: Passion River Films
32. “Arctic Manhunt: Hunt for the Mad Trapper”: Alliant Content
33. “The Break-In”: Justin Doescher
34. “How Sweet It Is”: Multicom Entertainment Group
35. “A Haunting At The Park Hotel”: TriCoast Entertainment
36. “Haunting at Foster Cabin”: Vision Films
37. “Just Buried”: Multicom Entertainment Group
38. “Me Without You”: Samuel Goldwyn Films
39. “Shadow Puppets”: Asian Media Rights
40. “The Wild Pacific”: Alliant Content
41. “8 Murders a Day”: Asian Media Rights
42. “Insane”: Indie Rights
43. “OCD and Me”: Alliant Content
44. “Women on Death Row”: Alliant Content
45. “The Norse: An Arctic Mystery”: Alliant Content
46. “Shaolin Tamo Systique”: Veranda Entertainment
47. “When Hitler Invaded Britain”: Alliant Content
48. “Identicals”: Samuel Goldwyn Films
49. “Raising Victor Vargas”: Samuel Goldwyn Films
50. “Vietnam: Secret Negotiations that Ended the War”: Alliant Content