EXCLUSIVE: You might not have heard of Ritchie Ordonez, but she’s quietly become among the most important players in European streaming.

Earlier this year, as Amazon was making cuts across its entertainment businesses during a major round of international restructuring, Ordonez was named head of Prime Video EU Emerging — a cluster of countries Amazon had identified as the new growth drivers in Europe that would sit opposite a group of countries on the continent where Prime Video is a household name.

Internally, staff were told that investment was coming to Benelux, the CEE and the Nordics, with Africa and the Middle East the unfortunate hubs that would lose out as a result. In her first interview since the move, Ordonez doesn’t comment on how the changes played out but instead outlines her vision for the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, Turkey and Poland — though she is essentially general manager of all European territories outside of the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain.

Within Amazon, her unit is now being referred to as EU Expansion (EUX), perhaps a clearer indicator of the direction of travel. However, Ordonez has, in fact, effectively been working on the initiative since June 2020, when she relocated from the U.S. to Munich, Germany, to oversee marketing in the EU Expansion countries. She was upped to a general manager post two years later and took control of Benelux, the CEE and Turkey — and has since focused on investing in countries where Prime Video has acted as a trigger for Prime retail subscriptions.

Moving money from the MENA region and Africa — “rebalancing” resources as Prime Video’s VP & GM for EMEA, Barry Furlong, awkwardly put it to staff at the time — left local producers in those regions disappointed to lose a key buyer just as it was getting started. Indeed, Amazon had struck deals in Africa with the likes of Inkblot Studios and Jáde Osiberu and launched its first original, Gangs of Lagos, in 2023 as part of what had been described to Deadline as “continued, long-term investment in sub-Saharan Africa.” Once the dust had settled, Prime Video began using the transferred cash to increase local acquisitions and originals in the EUX territories. Accordingly, Ordonez fronted a ‘Prime Video Presents…’ showcase in Poland just last week.

So why haven’t we heard more from her? The answer is simply because she’s been in the background, squirrelling away on strategy and overseeing developments in areas such as UX, dubbing and acquisitions. “We have been in a pure building stage over the last two years,” Ordonez tells Deadline. “The change for me this year is taking on the Nordics and the bifurcation of the European business. We found a lot consistency in some of the playbooks across territories and have experimented on how we could scale that to meet our content needs, but in a sustainable way.”

Amazon’s European ride

Prime Video has been in Europe, in one form or another, since it acquired UK DVD rentals and streaming service Lovefilm in 2011. A global launch followed almost exactly eight years ago on December 14, 2016, and the SVoD became a key player in the streaming arms race that followed. Earlier this year, Amazon’s move to downsize its entertainment business and cut costs saw Europe split in two, with Ordonez leading emerging territories and Brigitte Ricou-Bellan taking on the established UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and France, known as EU5. Though the expansion cluster received new investment, we revealed Amazon was axing just under 5% of its Prime Video Europe staff in the restructing. Amazon hasn’t directly commented on the specifics of the layoffs.

Ordonez says she and the UK-based Ricou-Bellan are “attached at the hip” as they work through the next stages of Prime Video’s European adventure. Neither come from content backgrounds — Ordonez came up through marketing and Bellan-Ricou through a boardroom-focused career. “We work very closely together — I spend more time with her than I do my husband,” jokes Ordonez. However, she acknowledges that the “much more mature” EU5 is on a “very different journey” with more robust content investments. “We realized we needed a very different playbook.”

The necessity to write the rules of a new “playbook” is obvious. Streaming in Europe has changed significantly over recent years, as studios refocus on profitability over subs growth. Paramount+ and HBO Max (now Max) both rowed back from local commissioning pushes, and while Netflix, Amazon and Disney continued with originals, the order book is more scrutinized than ever. Last week, HBO boss Casey Bloys told journalists in London that Max is back in the market for European originals, but it isn’t yet clear exactly how that will play out. For Prime Video’s EUX business, which Ordonez notes is providing “all meaningful growth in Europe,” the challenge is clear.

“There is a game to win in these countries,” she says. “Our goal is to grow sustainably with a path to profitability. These are meaningful countries, but they’re smaller than EU5, so it’s about looking at bespoke content needs. It’s about giving the customers the same robust content slate, but with more efficient ways of building that.”

In Poland, the most nascent of Prime Video EUX’s key territories, last week signalled a big moment, with a content showcase featuring docs about singer Doda and Polish soccer star Wojciech Szczęsny, new unscripted shows Rap Generation and The 50 and further details on Season 3 of comedy reality show LOL: Last One Laughing. “People forget that we are there because we’ve been working in the background, so this is something of our debut, and our chance to highlight the content we are making,” says Ordonez. “I hope people walked away understanding that.

“It’s only really the last two years we’ve been doing originals in Poland. It’s the newest for us from an investment perspective, along with Turkey, and there’s still lots to learn. We’re really early in our journey, but it’s exciting and it’s what I love about Amazon: I never would have thought I’d live in Europe or have this kind of role.”

The advantage for Prime Video EUX is it has been “able to learn what is working in other territories,” says Ordonez. For example, Japanese format LOL: Last One Laughing (aka Documental) has been remade across the Prime Video footprint, including in the Nordics where there are versions in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and the Netherlands and Turkey. “We know comedy is a great way to tap into the local audience and it complements what we have on the scripted side of our global slate,” she adds.

Notable shows from the Netherlands include Jorik, a doc that tells the story of notorious Dutch rapper and actor Jorik Scholten (aka Lil’ Kleine), and comedy series De Tatta’s, about a rich family who find themselves broke. From Turkey are the likes of Blue Cave (Mavi Magara), about a Navy soldier who makes a trip to honor his late wife, while the Nordic region has spawned the likes of sport sod Ingebritsen – Born to Run, crime drama STHLM Blackout and Q1 2025 will see the launch of mystery drama series Blindspar (Blind Spot) and The Commoner.

Program licensing and pay-one film acquisitions have also been a key in the Nordics, Netherlands, Poland and Turkey with the audience in the latter particularly keen on local scripted movies. In the Nordics, the acquisition of nine Viaplay originals — comprising Bullshit, The Commoner, The Fortress, In the Name of Love, Jana – Marked for Life, Paradis City, Solo/Dancing Alone, Furia Season Two and Those Who Kill Season Four — was “a great way to add scripted to the slate and build a robust offer there,” says Ordonez. This came after Viaplay pulled out of the production game.

The plan for originals in each country Ordonez looks after is around six to eight per year, though that could be lower in Turkey, where inflation has meant it is “challenging trying to calibrate investments,” she says. “Having around that number again helps us to complement that global slate with some local flavor, and that’s fairly consistent in most territories.”

Testing models

Anyone who’s been to a TV industry event or has been reading Deadline’s international coverage in the past year will know co-productions are becoming increasingly the norm at global streamers, as they seek to find ways to adapt their slates while not breaking the bank. For Prime Video EUX, this is an option that’s being explored. “The reality is we’re open,” says Ordonez. “We know we have to work leaner in those countries, so we’re pretty flexible on the models. We have co-produced in the Nordics and partnered with broadcasters in the Netherlands.”

Beyond that, EUX will follow the model Prime Video has established elsewhere, for example, looking to aggregate other services (Max is offered in the Netherlands and SkyShowtime in Poland) or add more networks to Prime Video Channels. Movies and series offered via rental are also offered to make Prime Video “a first-stop entertainment destination,” as Ordonez calls it.

Meanwhile, Fallout has been hit in most EUX territories thanks to the strong gaming cultures in the countries. “That makes us very excited about more of those gaming franchises like Tomb Raider and God of War coming to the service,” says Ordonez. Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Reacher, Anne Hathaway romcom The Idea of You and The Summer I Turned Pretty have all proven popular, along with German hit Maxton Hall: The World Between Us, which has been killing it on the platform and highlights a growing desire for European content, according to Ordonez. To that end, Prime Video recently launched Spanish zombie horror Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End (aka Apocalipsis Z: El Principio Del Fin), and it performed strong in the EUX countries. In Turkey, Korean series Marry My Husband, which was co-produced with local streamer TVING, landed well. “These programs are really starting to travel,” says Ordonez.

On the movie front, she notes, “A lot cinemas haven’t bounced back in the way they would have liked post-Covid, and supporting that sector is important.” This means working with local exhibitors, distributors and producers, and being flexible enough to give films theatrical windows when needed. “During Covid, we had a lot of films that we had to launch direct-to-streaming just by virtue of there being no cinemas open, and we’ve seen the outcome on both of those methods,” says Ordonez.

“We don’t see any cannibalization, frankly, when we have theatrical launches. In fact, a lot of those titles bring in new customers, even if they have a TVoD window on Prime Video. It’s so fragmented and people have so little time, but there is still a massive audience to tap into, and so we’re open to any of those models. Producers are excited about having that theatrical presence and that works, but other titles have gone direct-to-streaming and that’s been successful, too.”

Looking ahead, Andrew Bennett is set to replace Barry Furlong at the head of Amazon Europe’s Prime Video teams. Prime Video VP of International Kelly Day said recently the long-serving Bennett, who is relocating from the U.S., would bring acumen in “content acquisition, partnerships and business development, marketing, and product/tech” to the role. Ordonez isn’t commenting ahead of the change, but it’s understood Prime Video Europe is taking a ‘business as usual’ approach before Bennett’s vision for the business takes shape.

What she will say of 2025 is that she expects her key challenge to be “keeping up with the volume, and trying to figure out the models.” There could be more opportunistic deals such as the Viaplay agreement to add scripted to the slate, to offset “risky and expensive” original production, while on the unscripted front she points to how local versions of LOL have led to contestants landing Prime Video specials and building out their personalities. “That has really captured the local culture,” she adds.

“If in 12 months’ time we can say the growth has continued and we’ve added to the slate with local originals, that would be a success, along with growing the channels and TVOD,” concludes Ordonez. “Getting the content right is the most challenging thing — you don’t have a lot of shots at that. We have to be thoughtful about it and we’re learning from all of the things we’ve launched.”

Ordonez and co will soon get the chance to apply that knowledge to the next stage of EUX’s lifecycle.