Only 70% of Prime subscribers watch Prime Video; is that bad?
Only 70% of Prime subscribers watch Prime Video; is that bad?
New data indicates that Prime customers aren’t watching Prime Video as often as the company would like, but things are improving.
Prime Video is a curious case in the streaming world. Ostensibly, the streamer has more than 200 million subscribers, but one recent survey found that 96% of its respondents received Prime Video as a benefit of the larger Amazon Prime subscription, instead of subscribing to the streamer on a standalone basis. New data from ADWEEK sheds even more light on Amazon’s struggles to migrate customers to Prime Video but also reveals an opportunity for the company.
Key Details:
- ADWEEK’s data shows that nearly three in 10 Prime subscribers don’t watch Prime Video.
- Despite this, some platforms’ data shows that Prime Video has a bigger share of viewer interest than Netflix.
- The addition of major sports rights like NBA games could help Prime Video get more people watching.
The data from ADWEEK shows that almost three in 10 Amazon Prime customers don’t engage with the Prime Video streaming service despite getting it free as part of their subscription. The number of Prime customers who do watch Prime Video is growing, but there’s no doubt Amazon would prefer a larger segment of its customer base to watch the streamer.
However, there are some encouraging signs for Prime Video. While it accounted for only 3.5% of all TV viewed in the month of February per Nielsen, it is also the No. 1 service in the first quarter of 2025 in terms of market share, as measured by JustWatch and its proprietary market share formula.
Making Prime Video a benefit of Amazon Prime was a shrewd move on Amazon’s part, making subscriber acquisition a much easier process. But now, the question becomes how to ensure audiences who get Prime Video as part of Prime actually end up watching it.
“With Prime Video, it is less about acquiring subscribers and more about ‘turning on’ their existing ones, and content is driving that shift,” consulting analyst for Prohaska Chris Cifarelli told ADWEEK . “The sports rights, in particular, seem to be effective on that front.”
Prime Video offers exclusive national streams of “Thursday Night Football,” and will be part of the NFL’s Christmas Day tripleheader this year. The service is also getting in on the NBA starting in 2025, and will present a package of national regular season and playoff games from that league beginning this fall.
If Amazon can get more Prime customers watching Prime Video, it can reap the rewards of increased ad revenue. Company CEO Andy Jassey wants to make Prime Prime Video profitable by the end of 2025, and the key to doing so seems to lie in getting more viewers who already have the service to simply turn it on a little more.
Prime Video
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 Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.