Amazon Prime Video to Include Advertising
Here’s Variety:
“Viewers of landmark series on Amazon Prime Video like ‘The Boys’ or ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ will soon be offered something never made available on the service before: TV commercials.
Amazon Prime Video, one of the last mainstream streaming services to eschew the injection of regular commercial breaks into its movies and shows, plans to start letting them run early next year. Amazon follows a host of other streaming hubs — including Disney+, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max– that also offer ad-supported tiers, a move that suggests the world of streaming may just eventually mirror the world of traditional television in the not-too-distant future
‘The TV industry has really never been able to truly control itself when it comes to aggressive monetization,’ says Tim Hanlon, CEO of Vertere Group, a media-industry consultancy.
The company says it plans to run fewer ads on Amazon Prime Video than traditional broadcasters or broadband rivals. Four minutes per hour seems to be a benchmark for the lowest amount of ad time on a streaming platform. Commercials will first appear the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada in early 2024, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in the year. Those who want to keep Amazon Prime Video ad-free can still do so — for an additional $2.99 per month in the U.S. on top of the annual subscription to Amazon’s overall Prime service.”
There was a feeling in the air that this development was inevitable, especially given Amazon's focus on ramping up paid subscription revenue. According to Amazon, ads are being introduced on Prime Video “[t]o continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time…”
In what has become something of a trademark in paid streaming, the addition of advertising is typically accompanied by a price increase for those who don’t want ads. In Amazon’s case, the $3/month add-on amounts to a 33% price increase to the standalone price for Prime Video.
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