Amazon Studios

Amazon StudiosLast year Amazon Studios joined the original content game with its first two series, the comedies Betas and Alpha House. Both programs received generally favorable reviews, but they didn’t exactly turn into cultural juggernauts — and meanwhile Netflix was taking victory laps at the Emmys and Golden Globes. For better or worse, prestige has always been earned on the battlefield of drama, and without a House of Cards or Orange is the New Black Amazon was letting Netflix become the de-facto destination for high-quality original programming on the internet. On Thursday, that’s changed. Amazon is back with a slate of 10 new pilots, using the same crowdsourced process as before: Amazon Prime customers can stream the episodes for free, weigh in with their opinion, and help determine what becomes a full-fledged series.

Read the full story at The Verge.

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