Prime Video has 88% of customers on ad-supported plans
Prime Video has 88% of customers on ad-supported plans
The number is an outlier when compared to other streamers, and leaves room for speculation that Prime Video isn’t attracting the type of viewership as it would like.
In recent years, nearly every major subscription streaming service has introduced an ad-supported plan. But the ad-tier rollout on Prime Video was done a little differently than the rest. Instead of launching a new, cheaper ad plan, as most other services have done, Amazon opted to simply convert all existing customers to ad-supported unless they agreed to pay $3 per month more to go ad-free. Now, according to a new survey from Digital I, that strategy has paid off handsomely. However, a closer look at the numbers leaves room for speculation about the actual viewership on Prime Video.
Key Details:
- Not rookie numbers: Almost 90% of Prime Video customers are using ad plans.
- Not even close: No other streamer measured by the survey has more than 35% of customers on ad plans.
- Reason for concern?: Combined with other recent data, the survey results could show that Prime Video viewership isn’t all that strong.
The survey from Digital I shows that 88% of Prime Video customers are still using the streamer’s ad plan. That outdistances other streaming services by a wide margin; Disney+ is the closest streamer in terms of ad-supported users at 35%, followed by Netflix at 26%, and Max at 22%.
Click graph to expand.
At first blush, the data appears to be good news for Prime Video. Even Netflix, the biggest streamer of them all, struggled for many months to get viewers to adopt its ad-supported plan when it was first launched in late 2023. Streaming executives love ad-supported plans because they provide two revenue streams: one from subscriber dollars and one from the advertising money that comes along with these plans.
However, there is reason for pause in Prime Video’s case. The Amazon streaming service is somewhat unique amongst its peers; the vast majority of its distribution comes from customers who receive Prime Video as a benefit of the Amazon Prime membership.
There’s evidence to suggest that a large percentage of those who are technically Prime Video subscribers because they are signed up through Prime aren’t actually engaging with the service. Another recent study, fielded by ADWEEK, shows that almost 30% of Prime subscribers never engage with Prime Video at all, which would surely mean they never bothered to pay an extra $3 per month to upgrade to an ad-free plan.
The numbers from Digital I leave room to question whether that number isn’t much larger. If 88% of Prime Video customers are still on the ad plan, how much do they really engage with the streaming service? Prime Video’s ad-free subscription costs $12 per month, less than Netflix, Disney+, and Max charge for their ad-free tiers. Such a large percentage of customers on Prime Video’s ad plan could indicate that viewers don’t watch the streamer enough to care whether or not they get commercials.
Without firm data from Amazon, it’s hard to be sure. The company doesn’t reveal its total number of subscribers on Prime Video, much less the number of viewers who engage with the streamer on a regular basis. Prime Video is one of the best features of a Prime subscription according to The Streamable's Jared DiPane, but the data from Digital I offers a chance for speculation that not as many people are using the streaming service as Amazon would like.
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.