Amazon won the bidding war for Clarkson and co’s new car show, which has yet to be named, but Netflix will continue to offer something for auto enthusiasts. Netflix will stream BBC’s new Top Gear show with Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc internationally, according to the The Guardian.
Top Gear on Netflix
Amazon has acquired the rights to Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond’s new car show. It will premiere this fall on Amazon Prime Video, which is currently available in a handful of countries, including the US, the UK, Germany, and Japan.
Netflix will instead continue to stream BBC’s program, which will still be called Top Gear. This was confirmed to The Guardian by Netflix’s head of programming, Ted Sarandos. He says that the new show with Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc is included in Netflix's current contract with the BBC.
- “So in many parts of the world we already have it picked up and we’ll continue to talk to them about doing it as well. The show is very popular on Netflix as you can imagine. There’s a change in format but people definitely prefer the British Top Gear over the local Top Gear in almost every country in the world,” said Sarandos to The Guardian.
Netflix explains that it will stream Top Gear in international markets outside of the UK, but since BBC holds the rights to the show there will be exceptions. For example, it appears that BBC is preparing to air the show in the US. New episodes are also delayed on Netflix in some regions where TV networks have first-run rights.
Netflix had 75 million subscribers as of January 2016. Amazon has refused to share subscriber numbers but it is estimated that Amazon is the second largest subscription streaming service globally, behind only Netflix.
- Source: The Guardian
