Will Prime Video Channels Save Smaller, Niche Streamers Like AMC+, BET+, Others?
New data from Antenna shows that Prime Video plays an outsized role in distributing specialty streaming services.
Everywhere you look these days, there seems to be a new streaming bundle available. This year, viewers were introduced to the Xfinity StreamSaver bundle of Apple TV+, Netflix, and Peacock, as well as a new combination of Disney+, Hulu, and Max. The thing that these offerings have in common is that they both feature streaming services generally considered to be at the top of the market, with tens of millions of customers each and established brand identities. Smaller streaming services with more niche content offerings like Acorn TV, BET+, Crunchyroll, and more have so far been left out of the big streaming bundles, and new data from Antenna shows that platforms like Amazon’s Prime Video are having — and will continue to have — a profound effect on the distribution of such services.
Key Details:
- In 2024, 58% of subscriptions to so-called “specialty SVODs” came through Prime Video Channels.
- Nearly 31 million customers have subscribed to specialty SVODs via Prime Video Channels thus far.
- The number of viewers who have tried a specialty SVOD continues to climb, but customer retention remains a challenge.
The figures from Antenna show that when customers want to try a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service with a particular genre focus, they mostly do it through Prime Video Channels, the digital store that allows Amazon Prime customers to shop for individual titles in addition to new streaming services.
Fifty-eight percent of customers who subscribed to a specialty SVOD service in 2024 did so through Prime Video Channels. Other distributors like The Roku Channel have gained incremental market share over the past few years, but Prime Video continues to be the most dominant source of such subscriptions.
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The data also shows that compared to its peers, Prime Video has done an especially good job of steering its customers toward specialty streaming services. Antenna’s research found that 30.8 (56%) million of the 54.6 million Prime Video subscribers who have transacted with Prime Video Channels at some point have subscribed to a specialty SVOD at some point. Among other competitors, only Apple TV has seen more than 10 million viewers try a specialty SVOD through its platform.
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Can Specialty Streamers Survive?
The bundling craze that has gripped the streaming industry gives plenty of room to question whether specialty streamers have a chance at surviving in a future where there are just a small handful of mega-sized streaming services. But Antenna’s numbers provide some hope that genre-focused streamers have a chance thanks to Prime Video Channels and other distribution platforms.
The data shows that the number of customers who have transacted with specialty SVODs in total has steadily risen in recent years. In the first quarter of 2022, the percentage of SVOD users who had tried a specialty service was just 19%, but that number has risen to 31% as of the second quarter of this year.
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There most significant challenge for highly specialized streaming services to overcome is keeping customers who sign up because they’re curious. Of all specialty SVODs measured by Antenna, BET+ has the best proportion of customers who are committed — subscribers who have been with the streamer for more than six months and have never canceled it before. But even BET+’s committed customer base is only 31% of its total, and the average churn rate for such services is above 7%.
There’s no doubt that at least some of these niche streamers will be incorporated into streaming bundles in the future, but for many their best hope will be continued availability on platforms like Prime Video Channels, which has a proven track record of being able to lure customers into such services at a high rate.
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.