Why Streaming The State Of The Union Is Good For Amazon’s Bottom Line

Amazon is not kidding around in its competition with Netflix for streaming dominance.

Though it has been in the original content business for less time, it is quickly making a big impact. Amazon had a big night at the Golden Globes Jan. 10 – taking home two big wins (best Musical or Comedy and Best Actor) for its new comer “Mozart In The Jungle”.  Netflix led the pack on nominations, but Amazon actually took home the gold for the only show in history advertised as being about sex, drugs and classical music.

Moving on from the after party – Amazon has further announced that it will be collaborating with the White House to live stream President Obama’s (final) State of the Union Address.

Users on any Amazon product (i.e. the Fire TV or TV stick) using Amazon video can live stream the entire speech – part of the White House’s continuing efforts to “meet voters where they are.”

And part of Amazon’s continuing efforts to do the same – as it continually pushes to be the streaming (and consumer goods, and delivery, and logistics,) firm that is everywhere a consumer wants to be.

The White House’s efforts will also include posting snippets of the speech on Vine and Tumblr in GIF form, posting photos on Instagram, and using Obama’s 68 million Twitter followers.

No one expects the move will help the SOTU the sort of numbers the Super Bowl enjoys – but even the generally slow acting government is catching on to the idea that catching the eye of the average citizen requires moving the message to where the eyeballs actually are.