by Thinus Ferreira

Amazon that is looking to rapidly grow and staff up its Amazon Studios personnel in South Africa, as it gets ready to expand its local Amazon and Amazon Prime presence in the country, is looking to poach experienced TV executives for Amazon Prime Video for future South African scripted and unscripted TV programming.

Amazon will likely heavily favour staff from MultiChoice, M-Net, and eMedia’s e.tv who have the necessary skill sets, knowledge and local industry background and know-how. Possible job takers from the struggling South African public broadcaster who might want to jump ship might also be considered.

The Amazon Studios TV jobs are just some of almost 150 new work positions specifically earmarked for South Africans, including territory managers, software engineers and work-from-home customer care consultants that are part of the latest tranche of job applications that Amazon is advertising for.

Amazon’s aggressive recruitment, likely with plans to appoint a local publicity team as well for Amazon Prime Video content after it started to advertised for an Amazon Prime Video SA senior social media manager in January for the first time, comes as Amazon plans to build an expansive new South African hub at the River Club grounds in Cape Town.

Amazon Prime Video has allocated and increased a specific marketing budget for South Africa, that noticeably includes online and above-the-line advertising like billboards.

Amazon and Amazon Prime Video are aggressively expanding and sinking money into South Africa as it takes on rival streamers like Netflix South Africa, Apple TV+, MultiChoice’s Showmax and Disney+ that is set to launch around June this year, together with legacy pay-TV operators like MultiChoice’s DStv and M-Net.