Amazon Prime Video battles catalog errors, affecting viewer engagement
Amazon Prime Video is experiencing a significant drop in viewership numbers due to persistent catalog errors, as per internal documents obtained by Business Insider. The streaming service has been dealing with issues such as missing episodes, incorrect translations, and mislabeled titles. In response to these problems, Amazon initiated a project this year, aimed at rectifying the errors and reducing customer complaints.
Catalog errors trigger 60% of Prime Video complaints
In 2023, catalog errors accounted for a staggering 60% of all customer complaints about Prime Video, as indicated by the internal documents. Approximately 10,000 complaints were associated with "season integrity," encompassing issues like missing episodes, incorrect content availability, and inconsistent playback options. The documents also revealed that showing the wrong localized display page, led to a 20% increase in engagement drop-offs.
Amazon's $19 billion investment to combat streaming issues
In a bid to tackle these challenges, Amazon invested a hefty $19 billion in its music and video services in 2023. The company plans to develop software that will "proactively identify known customer defects related to inconsistent or incomplete seasons," as per the documents. The Prime Video team is hopeful that this initiative will reduce the number of complaints it gets by 15,000 annually.
Amazon's commitment to catalog quality improvement
"Catalog quality is an ongoing priority," an Amazon spokesperson stated in an email to Quartz. The company is committed to working tirelessly with its global partners as well as dedicated internal teams, to enhance the overall customer experience. This commitment comes in light of numerous catalog errors, including instances where only the second episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was available on debut night, and Bruce Willis's Die Hard with a Vengeance lacked Spanish audio.
