Amazon will start showing Prime Video customers more advertisements during its television shows and films from next year.
Soon, ads will appear on screens when viewers pause an episode or film. Carousel ads, like the type you see on Instagram, will also pop up during a binge watch, allowing customers to browse and purchase products during ad breaks.
Amazon is currently shopping around a range of new ad formats with brands and marketers, according to reports. Its unique ability to convert passive viewers into active buyers on its e-commerce site is viewed as its biggest advantage.
Although Prime Video is offered as a standalone subscription, most subscribers get it as part of their overall Amazon Prime membership. As such, the streaming service is a secondary perk (along with Prime gaming), with the main draw being free and quick online shopping deliveries.
But, that hasn’t stopped Prime Video from becoming a major streaming destination. Thanks to a mix of blockbuster US and UK programming, from the Lord of the Rings TV series to the reality show Clarkson’s Farm, the service now reaches more than a third of British adults, per Amazon.
After years of uninterrupted streaming, Amazon began peppering shows and movies on Prime Video with adverts in February.
Taking a novel approach, the shopping giant turned on ads overnight for all subscribers, while rivals Netflix and Disney Plus siloed them in cheaper ad-supported plans.
Amazon’s strategy boiled down to a simple choice: if people disliked the ads, they could pay £2.99 per month to remove them. This, in turn, would bump up their Prime bill to £11.98, giving them ad-free streaming on top of all the other benefits they were accustomed to.
In return, Amazon could continue to pump billions into its streaming productions. To bolster its library, the company bought storied Hollywood studio MGM for $8.45bn (£6.45bn) in 2022. Customers recently reaped the benefits of that deal when Prime Video added the entire catalogue of Bond movies, a jewel in MGM’s crown.
60 years. 25 films. One @007. Stream the Bond films now on @PrimeVideo. #60YearsofBond pic.twitter.com/oMZAf4Mu0m
— Prime Movies (@primemovies) October 5, 2022
It turns out Brits weren’t put off by the adverts. Prime Video now reaches 19 million ad-supported viewers in the UK, with many choosing not to cancel their subscriptions despite the introduction of ads, according to Amazon.
Maybe, customers stayed put because it didn’t affect the type of content they could watch. Unlike Netflix, Amazon isn’t restricting ad watchers from accessing its full range of shows and movies.
Brits are also more accustomed to ads, thanks to a mix of ad-funded commercial broadcasters and their ad-supported streaming offshoots, from Channel 4’s All4 to ITV’s ITVX.
Still, it remains to be seen if the arrival of more and varied ads will make subscribers uneasy. At launch, Amazon declared that it would run “meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers”.
However, since then, it has increased the number of ad breaks, shifting from showing one ad before a programme to adding another during the show itself. Some users have complained that the abrupt placement of these ads can ruin the enjoyment of watching a show or movie.
Now, just imagine how they’ll feel when they pause an episode of The Boys to be confronted with a purchasable ad for toilet roll.
