Streamer’s US boss Albert Cheng and sports chief Jay Marine take on new remits
Amazon Prime Video has reshuffled its senior management team with US boss Albert Cheng moving to a new role overseeing AI and former Europe chief Jay Marine taking on a vast remit.
The move will see Marine, most recently Prime Video’s global sports and advertising topper, assume oversight of the streamer’s US operations, as well as its channel subscription service.
He also retains oversight of global sports and advertising.
Marine is a veteran of Amazon having joined the company in 2002, initially working at e-reader unit Kindle before working as a special advisor to former chief exec Jeff Bezos.
He was named vice-president of Prime Video for Europe and India in 2015, before being upped to become vice-president and global head of sports and advertising in 2023.
Former Disney/ABC exec Cheng, meanwhile, will take charge of Prime Video’s investment into AI and lead on content creation using the tech.
The move was revealed by Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios chief Mike Hopkins, who said in a memo to staff that the reorg was part of shift to expand its use of AI in content creation.
Hopkins said Cheng would lead Prime Video’s “investments in creating new tools for our creative partners that harness the power of AI.”
He added: “Alongside our Studios tech team, Albert will lead content creation and focus on empowering the very best filmmakers and showrunners to do their most innovative work in AI and – in doing so – create even more high-quality content for customers.”
Details of how Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios are looking to expand the use of AI in content creation remain scant, but Hopkins described the technology as an opportunity “to push boundaries in an area that takes advantage of the scale and technological leadership of Amazon”.
He added that it “has the potential to deliver an entirely new kind of storytelling to customers.”
The reorg is also part of a broader strategy across the e-retailer to flatten its corporate structure, a subject under discussion with Amazon president and chief exec, Andy Jassy.
Hopkins said there is a “need for us to create bigger roles, flatter orgs and single threaded leaders that can push decision-making down and empower us all to move faster.”
He added that the rejig also reflects “the lightning-fast speed at which AI is augmenting and accelerating the way we work and ushering in new opportunities to create and distribute entertainment and sports that our customers love.”
It would also “enable [Prime Video] to be even more strategic about the significant bets we will make in the AI space,” Hopkins said.
US trade Deadline broke news of the reorg.
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