Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has said that it was "very, very, very expensive" to strike a deal with Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear co-stars for his digitial television service.
Bezos recently secured Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond to front ‘a Top Gear-style motoring show’ for Amazon Prime customers.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph newspaper the Amazon founder said the three former Top Gear stars are "worth a lot of money and they know it".
Bezos believes that television is in its golden age, “so if you go back in time even just five years, you couldn't get A-list talent to do TV serials, or if you could, it was a rare thing. But that's flipped completely."
The three-man team, along with Top Gear’s former executive producer Andy Wilman, have signed a three-series deal with Amazon. The new show, which is as yet untitled, will be broadcast next year.
Bezos said the show was one of a number of new shows commissioned for viewers of Prime, who pay £79 a year in the UK to access programmes, with next-day delivery on orders guaranteed.
The Financial Times estimates the cost to Amazon for the new motor show deal is $250m (in excess of €225m)
