007: Road to a Million is part of Amazon’s larger TV-streaming brand strategy

In November 2023, Amazon released 007: Road to a Million onto Amazon Prime Video (Prime) – its subscription video on demand (SVOD) service. As the biggest investment into an unscripted reality show since The Grand Tour, it represents Amazon’s first serious attempt to exploit the James Bond IP since its acquisition of MGM in March 2022. The show revolves around contestants competing to win £1 million in prize money through a series of Bond-inspired spy challenges in iconic locations used in the films. Presenting (and channelling the James Bond arch villain stereotype) is Brian Cox, fresh from his Golden Globe winning performance as Logan Roy in HBO’s Succession. Cox plays the “the controller” and sets the challenging tasks for the contestants as they seek to progress through the show.

Despite the underlying IP, talent, and set locations, 007: Road to a Million is yet to connect with critics and viewers alike, scoring low ratings on the UK’s BARB audiences TV-viewing measures. This has been inflated by detractors as being a sign of underperformance for the show. However, professional critics and ratings systems designed primarily for broadcast TV (rather than TV streaming) are not the best judge of return on investment for Amazon in this case. This is primarily due to Amazon being firmly in a phase of TV streaming brand-building.

Amazon’s $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM represented a clear move by Amazon to repurpose its streaming service from a video add-on to its core ecommerce business into a substitutive TV streaming alternative for Prime members. Key to that process is creating a sufficiently broad range of content assets beyond the existing film and scripted drama library that has formed the bulk of traditional SVOD content offerings. Alongside expanding into tier one sports coverage, Amazon has been busy building up its creative reputation among show runners and figuring out how best to optimise the IP windfall generated by the MGM acquisition, of which The Lord of the Rings and James Bond are the key assets. 

Ultimately, Amazon is seeking to create new formats and additional content assets by leveraging an investment in video catalogue IP. Succeeding will result in not just a broader content library, but also a much richer entertainment experience for its Prime userbase.