Amazon Intends to Start Showing More Ads on Prime Video Next Year
Amazon is telling advertisers it will have more slots for them to fill starting in 2025.
It’s been more than nine months since Prime Video introduced ads onto its main streaming tier, and thus far the experience hasn’t been horrible. Typically the streamer plays a pre-show ad or two, then gives one or two more blocs of commercials per episode maximum. It’s a far cry from linear television and its 15+ minutes of ads per hour of programming, but a new report suggests that the two disparate viewing experiences might be growing closer in 2025. According to a report from the Financial Times, Prime Video plans to increase the number of ads it shows customers while streaming beginning in the new year.
Key Details:
- Prime Video International vice president Kelly Day says Prime Video’s ad load will “ramp up” in 2025.
- Previously, Amazon stated it wanted to show “meaningfully fewer ads” than the competition.
- Day says churn has been less than anticipated after the rollout of ads on Prime Video.
Amazon isn’t the type of company to leave money on the table, which goes a long way toward explaining the decision to boost the number of ads offered on Prime Video. Vice president of Prime Video International Kelly Day explained to the Financial Times that the rollout of ads in late January went about as well as the company could have hoped, and pointed to the service’s “very light ad load” as a “gentle entry into advertising that has exceeded customers’ expectations in terms of what the ad experience would be like.”
Day also pledged that starting in 2025, Prime Video’s ads per hour would “ramp up a little bit more,” and that there would be a larger number of slots available for advertisers to fill. Additionally, the company plans to use more shoppable ads that viewers can translate into immediate purchases with Amazon Prime.
It’s hard to say for sure where Prime Video will end up in its ads per hour count going forward as Day did not provide any guidance on that matter. It will likely get closer to the four to five minutes per hour that other streaming services currently offer, though hopefully, it won’t approach Hulu-like levels; that streamer frequently crams seven to 10 minutes worth of commercials per hour.
It will be hard for Prime Video to increase its ad load while simultaneously keeping the promise of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. In August, Jassy said that he wanted to keep the ad load on Prime Video distinctly lighter than it was on other streaming services.
“While ads have become a norm of streaming video, we aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers,” Jassy said just a few months ago.
Amazon is still holding to that basic desire, even with the news that it plans to potentially boost the number of ads per hour customers see.
“We have not changed our plans to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers, and evaluate advertising volumes to help ensure we’re delivering a great customer experience,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Streamable.
The internal metrics Amazon is seeing appear to be pushing the company toward increasing its ad load. Day said that the company saw fewer customers cancel than expected when the ads first rolled out and that the number of viewers who pay an extra $3 per month to upgrade to ad-free service is below the 20% figure some analysts estimated earlier this year. That indicates there’s an opportunity for Amazon to boost its revenue by increasing the ad load, and it’s not an opportunity the company intends to waste.
This article has been updated to include a statement from Amazon.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.