Giant head statues of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have been spotted taking in the sights of Sydney in the build up to the global roll out of The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video.
Amazon will make The Grand Tour available in 200 markets worldwide with the show already screening on Amazon Prime Video in five countries – US, UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Although it is the only show currently slated for global roll out, industry sources suggest Amazon Prime Video could use the popularity of the The Grand Tour as a launchpad for other shows and a global roll out of content could take place early next year.
A Wall Street Journal article has confirmed that Amazon is on the verge of a massive roll out and Amazon Prime Video recently allowed Australian users access to the service via its US and UK websites.
Amazon Prime Video is the only global SVOD with the financial clout to provide serious competition to Netflix across the world.
In Australia, Stan is the number two player after Netflix and has established a strong content library with original shows that would be hard for any new entrant to dislodge.
But Amazon is no ordinary competitor. It paid $250 million for The Grand Tour, which reunites the three popular ex-Top Gear stars in a new motoring show, and it is the second-largest investor in original content in the SVOD space, just behind Netflix.
Amazon's tie-up with The Grand Tour could prove to be a marketing masterstroke if they trio can reignite similar levels of global fandom to the original show.
In its hey day, Top Gear had a global audience of about 350 million viewers and Amazon programmers will be banking The Grand Tour will drum up similar levels of interest as Amazon Prime Video is introduced to the world.
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