Are Ad-Supported Tiers of Max, Paramount+ Coming to Prime Video Channels?

It’s all about ads for Amazon, this week. On Wednesday, news broke that Prime Video was planning to join its subscription video streaming competitors in offering an ad-supported tier for the first time in the history of the service. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, but also included some other details that Amazon might be making more additions to its Prime Video Channels store soon.

The story says that Amazon representatives have reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global about potentially adding the ad-supported tiers of their respective streaming services Max and Paramount+ to Prime Video Channels. Currently, the platform only offers the more expensive, ad-free versions of those streamers. No representative from any of the three companies agreed to comment on the record for the WSJ report, which at the very least indicates there are more details to work out before Max with ads and Paramount+ Essential are available on Prime Video Channels.

WBD’s streamer formerly known as HBO Max has had a tumultuous relationship with Amazon over the years. After being available on Prime Video Channels at launch, WarnerMedia pulled the service just six months later in an effort to completely own the subscription revenue and customer data. However, last December, new owners WBD returned the service to the streaming hub nearly 16 months later.

Ad-supported streaming is gaining in popularity among customers, so Amazon’s timing in seeking more ad-supported plans for Prime Video Channels is logical. A recent survey found that almost a third of all new streaming sign-ups were for ad-supported plans in 2022, and the additions of ad-supported streaming plans on Netflix, Disney+ and now Prime Video will almost certainly help boost that number even higher.

There’s also data available to support Amazon’s pursuit of more streaming plans to sell on Prime Video Channels. A report from April found that 53% of all streaming subscriptions in 2022 were made through third-party platforms like Prime Video Channels. The hub was second to Apple in terms of market share of third-party streaming subscriptions, and adding lower-cost options like Max with ads and Paramount+ Essential will help it eat into Apple’s portion.

Paramount will have to get a move on if it intends to put Paramount+ Essential on Prime Video Channels before the end of the month. On June 27, its higher-priced sibling tier Paramount+ Premium will be sunset to make way for Paramount+ with Showtime, which will integrate the content from the Showtime premium cable network onto Paramount+. At that time, Paramount+ Essential will rise in price from $4.99 per month to $5.99.

Whether Prime Video Channels will offer any special discounts on these services, as it has sometimes done in the past, will have to be answered if and when WBD and Paramount agree to allow them to be sold on the platform in the first place. But Amazon has reportedly made overtures, and users can expect WBD and Paramount to agree so long as they stand to make enough money from such an arrangement.