RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Prime Video should capture original Brazilian series in the future: Amazon is hiring production executives in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to create non-scripted shows, as well as a TV production manager with experience in traditional fiction series. Netflix’s competitor aims to grow in Brazil and has recruited a former Globoplay executive to lead this expansion.
The positions have been advertised in recent months. “We are looking for an experienced Production Executive to help develop non-scripted content for Mexico and Latin America,” writes Amazon. The position requires fluency in Portuguese and knowledge of productions in Latin America.
The company also requires at least eight years of experience in non-scripted content, including competition programs (MasterChef is an example), talent shows (such as The Voice), documentaries that follow the daily life of a celebrity or an athlete, among others.
The production executive is in charge of supervising the conception of a film or series. The executive acts as an intermediary between the company financing the project (in this case, Amazon) and the production team that oversees the recording and editing.
Amazon Prime Video recruited Globoplay executive
In addition, Amazon is looking for a TV production manager in São Paulo. The manager will be tasked with “managing all third-party productions for Amazon Studios in Brazil”. The position involves overseeing budgets and schedules, dealing with other teams (Content Acquisition, Post-Production, Marketing) and submitting daily reports to the leadership in Los Angeles.
In this case, the company requires experience in scripted series – with fiction stories in each episode – but says that knowledge in non-scripted series “will be useful”.
Prime Video already has some non-scripted series like The Grand Tour. Netflix has been investing heavily in this segment: for instance, Queer Eye, Chef’s Table, ‘Mandou Bem’ (“Nailed It”) and ‘Ordem na Casa’ (“Order in the House”) with Marie Kondo. “We estimate that about 70 to 75 percent of our user base has seen a documentary or engaged in non-fiction films with us,” Netflix executive Lisa Nishimura told Variety last year.
Amazon is dedicated to helping Prime Video grow in Brazil. In September, João Mesquita took over as general director; he was in charge of Globoplay and knew the competitor’s strategy for the next ten years. According to the NaTelinha website, the executive’s departure “has not yet been well digested and has raised concern among the top management of the Globo Group”.