Clarkson, Hammond & May’s The Grand Tour coming to Channel 7 free to air!

Amazon Prime might be the big challenger in the United States, but here in Australia they’d be lucky to have 100,000 subscribers, so is it any wonder they’re looking to cash in on their biggest title by selling “The Grand Tour” to Channel 7 for Free-to-air broadcast?

The first season of The Grand Tour which debuted in November last year is coming to Channel 7 this month as part of what looks like a promotional deal with the network.

Because of the regional nature of Television deals, offering The Grand Tour on TV in Australia doesn’t necessarily mean it will also happen overseas, but in a country where the Amazon Prime streaming service is struggling to gain traction it could well prove to be a master stroke.

It’s clear from the trailer for the Channel 7 broadcast that not only will the ads feature pointers toward Amazon Prime but there will likely be advertising within the program promoting Amazon Prime and most importantly the upcoming second season of The Grand Tour.

This is a vast challenge for Amazon – they have no brand presence in Australia, people know Amazon as a book store online, and while the ultra savvy may know they sell more and do more, the vast majority don’t have a clue what Amazon Prime is let alone even consider that it’s a streaming TV service.

The deal is a huge win for Channel 7, the show should rate extremely well, though it will need to be edited for Broadcast compliance, and while Amazon will certainly gain some marketing from it, most will likely be happy to hold out for the second season at the end of 2018 – if the deal continues:)