Cover image: Gary Waters/Ikon Images / Photononstop / Gary Waters/Ikon Images / Photononstop
Less than two weeks after the release, on HBO Max, of the first episodes of House of the DragonAmazon Prime Video broadcasts, from Friday, September 2, the series Tea Rings of Power (The Rings of Power in French), inspired by the world of Lord of the Rings. It would be the most expensive series ever produced, with a total budget of around one billion dollars for the five seasons – a figure however never confirmed by Amazon.
House of the Dragon, prequel to the saga Game Of Thrones, did not escape the inflation of production budgets: the ten episodes of the first season cost more than 200 million dollars. With what success? The first episode has attracted nearly ten million people in the United States on the first evening, according to Warner Discovery, and the second episode, more.
However, the war waged by video-on-demand (VOD) platforms, with the backing of billions of dollars, is it not forgetting the viewer? Until now spaces of freedom and innovation, would the series take the same path as the cinema by duplicating proven recipes leading to a standardization of content? Do these exceptional budgets allow us to better serve the story and the universe from which they come?
Ask your questions and debate with our journalists Thomas Sotinel, from the Culture department, and Olivier Pinaud, telecoms specialist, from 6 p.m.
Our articles on the subject
Economy. “House of the Dragon” vs. “The Rings of Power”: clash of titans in video on demand
Critical. “The Rings of Power”, on Amazon Prime Video: review sessions before Tolkien’s big show
To analyse. Disney dethrones Netflix and converts to advertising
Selection. “House of the Dragon”, “The Rings of Power”, “Off Season”, “Sandman”: the return of TV series
pixels. Between Ukraine and Russia, the battle for the legacy of the “Lord of the Rings”