Netflix got a lot of attention when three of its original shows earned a total of fourteen Emmy nominations, but it turns out that its competitor in online video is also getting some Emmy recognition.
No, Amazon isn’t up for any awards for Outstanding Drama Series or anything like that. Rather, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will recognize Amazon Instant Video with a 2013 Technology & Engineering Award for its work on personalized recommendation engines for video discovery, Amazon announced today.
“Our goal is to give customers the best possible movie and TV watching experience. That means both enabling customers to find exactly what they’re looking for and helping them discover new TV shows and movies in a personalized way,” said Bill Carr, VP of Music and Video for Amazon. “We’ve made it effortless to discover new content they’ll love, and we will continue to innovate on behalf of our customers to make it even easier and more enjoyable to explore all of the great movies and TV shows on Amazon.”
This is the first time Amazon has won such an award, though Amazon has been known for its recommendation technology for years. Amazon Instant Video is getting the award for its development of tools and algorithms that let customers easily find and discover videos that cater to their specific tastes and preferences, Amazon says.
One feature of Amazon Instant Video’s personalization and recommendations include Video Finder, which lets users find relevant movies and TV shows through classifications such as “Dystopian,” “Love,” “Zombies,” and “Revenge,” to name a few examples. These are ordered by users’ unique viewing habits and likes.
The engine also utilizes genre-based recommendations (determined by viewing history and favorite categories), the “customers who watched this also watched” feature and of course the “Your Store” feature, which gives personalized recommendations based on tastes and preferences.
LIke Netflix, Amazon is cranking up its original content output (It just greenlit five new pilots this week). Perhaps Amazon will be even more in the Emmy conversation like its rival Netflix when awards season rolls around next year.
