Prime Video Australia and New Zealand can claim to be on something of a roll as 2026 nears its second quarter, with The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Top End Bub propelling it to the position of most-awarded streaming service at last month’s Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards.
With the acclaimed and widely-viewed Deadloch set to return next week, hopes are high the run can continue, but for Sarah Christie, Amazon MGM Studios’ Head of Australia and New Zealand Originals, and Hwei Loke, Head of Prime Video Australia and New Zealand, there’s another itch to scratch.
“Amazon is definitely known as a destination for YA,” says Christie. “We would love to find the Australian Summer I Turned Pretty or the Australian Maxton Hall. For us, it’s about capturing the voice of that younger generation, stories for younger people or anyone having those coming-of-age moments.”
The only issue is Australia doesn’t exactly have the heritage in YA that Culpables was able to access in the Spanish-speaking world, or Maxton gained from contemporaries German-language series such as Dark and The Empress. Netflix had success with its reboot of Heartbreak High, while genre movies such as Danny and Michael Philippou’s horror Talk to Me have captured the voice of Australia’s youth, but broadly YA feels untapped in the country.
Christie is characteristically measured in her response when Deadline asks if she’s receiving enough pitches in the genre. “I would say we have opportunity to grow in that area because we don’t have the same exact history in the melodrama space as the Culpables trilogy, which has just blown up,” says Christie.
“We have a very different sensibility. It is a space to experiment, play, grow and take big, bold risks to engage with that audience, but what’s also exciting is we have a huge amount of on-screen talent – the Jacob Elordis, the Josh Heustons and the Thomas Weatherals. We’ve seen successes more broadly in Australia and we want to keep finding the fresh ways into that audience with the right stories.”
Christie’s challenge for Australian producers to find that YA hit comes at a peculiar point for local production. In November 2025, the government introduced streaming service quotas dictating major players should apportion a part of their local revenues to original Australian stories. Streamers such as Prime Video and Netflix had campaigned hard against the rules, but none have made any drastic decisions after losing the argument. The message is clear: Pitch.
‘Bringing the breadth of content’
Christie, Loke and Head of Content Alexandra Gilbert form a three-strong, all-female leadership guiding Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios in Australia and New Zealand. Former Disney and Paramount marketing exec Loke has been in her post since 2024, promoted from a marketing role to replace Hushidar Kharas and oversee everything from exclusives, third-party licensed content, engagement, local marketing and portfolio management, live sports, and internal partnerships.
YA has been high on her agenda as well, last year launching the Prime Book Club LIVE, a free fan event celebrating The Summer I Turned Pretty and Culpables alongside their creators and stars. “What we focus on at the core of the strategy is what audiences want,” she says. Her role is pivotal, encompassing local pay 1 movie windows, sports deals such as local NBA rights and the ICC cricket and streaming pacts with the likes of HBO Max, Apple TV and Paramount+ (before they become one, of course).
With 2026 shaping up as a year of consolidation, we ask how the Warner-Par merger and other big-money deals such as Banijay-All3Media could impact her plans at Amazon. “We are committed to working with our partners – we’ve have 27 add-on subscription partners to date. They bring a breadth of content to our service and deliver something to our consumers in the way they want it. We’ll continue to deliver that, building a service that is indispensable to people’s everyday entertainment choices.”
Hwei says 2025 was a “pivotal” year for her strategy. “I’m about 16 months into my role, and I’m so proud by what we’ve been able to achieve, from award-winning storytelling led by Sarah, recognized globally with The Narrow Road to the Deep North and locally with Top End Bub to inaugural live sport launches – a second year of the ICC cricket and a first of NBA rights.
“We’ve been able to engage more deeply with our audiences through events such as Prime Book Club and all of that has while increasing the breadth of our content through our partners. All that is bringing to an incredible destination for customers as this first-stop entertainment hub. Last year was about bringing that all together, and with a very strong, female-led leadership team.”
The Narrow Road to the Deep North was a standout, winning nine AACTAs, including a Best Lead Actor gong for Elordi, who is arguably the hottest Australian actor out there right now, and several craft awards. Christie calls the wins, which helped Prime Video become the most-awarded streamer, a “huge testament to the array of talent on display in Australia and to be recognized internationally with the Golden Globe nomination for Jacob is one of those pinch-me moments in your career. We really managed to capture something that is such a distinctly Australian story and take it to the world stage.”
Top End Bub, Miranda Tapsell’s hopeful and melancholy TV series spin-off from the Top End Wedding, is “entirely different in tone” to the dark brutality of Narrow Road and represents the spread of originals from the slate, alongside docs such as cricket series The Test and Australian rules football program Final Siren: Inside the AFL, true crime series and programs spotlight domestic icons such as kids entertainers The Wiggles. “What unites the slate holistically is that it’s very intentional and author-driven,” says Christie.
Deadloch Season 2, which reunites Kate Box and Madeleine Sami as comedy cops Dulcie and Eddie, will be hoping to recreate the success of Season 1, which reached Amazon’s Top 10 TV Charts in 165 territories and landed an International Emmy nomination.
“It is laugh out loud funny, but also a cracking mystery,” says Christie of the show, which relocates the detectives from a small Tasmanian town to the humid Top End in the Northern Territory to investigate a new murder. “People are coming for the comedy, but it’s also attracting rabid mystery fans.”
She calls the show, “the perfect example” of how she is backing local creators. “It’s one of the most Australian shows you’ll ever see – that is in its bones and the DNA – and Season 2 has as many crocs as characters. We’ve seen on social and in the press out of the U.S., writing guidebooks of Aussie slang, that it proves the authenticity of storytelling does work internationally.”
New formats are being developed in the comedy-entertainment space. We quiz Christie and Loke on whether LOL: Last One Laughing might return as an Australian original for the first time since 2019, but local fans might be disappointed with the answer. “LOL has been huge success for the company globally,” says Christie of the format, which has been remade on Prime Video everywhere from the UK to India and Iceland. “It’s an example of how the team can operate globally and double down in success. Anais Baker [Amazon MGM Studios Head of Global Formats] is brilliant at sharing information across the entire studio, but there’s nothing to announce today.”
Prime Video has launched around 31 originals from its ANZ base spanning novel adaptation The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart to property format Lux Listings Sydney, but Christie says there is no prescribed number each year.
“We don’t always speak to a slot-based business, and we really do go where the audience is from story point of view,” she adds. “I like to think of it as buckets I walk around with trying to fill.” While Prime Video Australia has a pretty developed sense of what its subscribers want, Christie says there is always room for surprise: “I have my mystery bucket, which is over to producers to fill with things I don’t know I want.”
Looking forwards, there are several domestic and global considerations coming. Christie says the streamer is “working through” the “complex” new streaming regulations, but stresses the platform is “committed to telling great Australian stories” regardless. “We’re honestly committed to doubling down on what has worked for our audiences.”
There’s also been change at the top of the Amazon originals tree, with former Netflix exec Peter Friedlander named Head of Global TV in September last year, and ex-Paramount TV Studios boss Nicole Clemens taking over as Vice President and Head of International Originals months before that. Has their strategy been felt yet?
“I feel so grateful to work with brilliant, strong creative leaders,” says Christie. “Nicole Clemens has an incredible track record and is already making great strides. It’s been a great year thinking back and taking those moments to reflect on the business holistically on the international originals front. We always interrogate what has been doing well, and double down on that and keep an eye on the future – this isn’t a crystal ball gazing business.
“One of the most exciting things coming from Australia is working in the global business, where we share knowledge. Not infrequently we get together with creative executives from all over the world, and what we find is universal themes travel. There’s a lot that unites our businesses, but we are all very local-first, which continues to be the guiding principle of our international originals team. That’s been the case since day one – and we always say it is day one at Amazon.”
English (US) ·