Fresh off her three Emmy wins Sunday, Variety reported that “Fleabag” creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge has signed an overall deal to produce television content for Amazon Prime Video.
Per Variety, Waller-Bridge will create and produce new television content for Amazon Studios that will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, the company’s flagship streaming service. Anonymous sources told the publication that the deal was worth around $20 million a year, although specifics about the length of the deal were unavailable.
“I’m insanely excited to be continuing my relationship with Amazon,” Waller-Bridge said in a statement. “Working with the team on ‘Fleabag’ was the creative partnership dreams are made of. It really feels like home. I can’t wait to get going!”
The deal was announced shortly after the banner Emmys night for Waller-Bridge and “Fleabag.” The acclaimed comedy series has been universally regarded as one of the year’s best television shows and received six Emmys for its second season. As for Waller-Bridge, her work on the series earned her the Emmys for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Comedy Series on Sunday.
Waller-Bridge is the latest in a string of high-profile television talents who have recently inked major deals with streaming services to produce exclusive content. Streamers are beginning to ramp out their exclusive content to stand out in the market—especially since buying the rights to legacy shows can get extremely expensive—and those plans often involve signing big money pacts with the most relevant names in Hollywood. There’s no word on what kinds of projects Waller-Bridge will work on for Amazon, but she recently confirmed that “Fleabag” wouldn’t be returning for a Season 3, despite the show’s huge success.
Although Amazon has made a strong case for itself in the increasingly crowded “prestige” television market thanks to widely popular and critically well-received shows such as “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Fleabag,” the company had yet to announce as many headline-grabbing deals with major talent as its competitors. For example, Netflix inked a roughly $300 million deal with “Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss in August, and finalized similarly lucrative deals with Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy in the last two years.
Amazon’s Waller-Bridge pact, though reportedly worth much less than those Netflix deals, is a major boon for the company. Waller-Bridge’s star power has never been stronger, and the fact that she’ll be creating exclusive content for Prime Video will likely be a key factor in the streaming service’s ongoing war to stand out from its many competitors.
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