Get ready for more commercials on Amazon Prime Video next year
Earlier this year, Amazon added advertisements to Amazon Prime Video for all subscribers—including those who pay for the service independently or get it through their existing Prime membership. But now there’s more bad news for Prime Video viewers: Amazon plans to ramp up the number of ads a viewer sees in 2025. Here’s what you need to know. More ads are coming to Prime Video in 2025 The news that Amazon plans on pushing more ads to viewers starting next year comes from the Financial Times, which reported on comments by Kelly Day, Amazon’s vice president of Prime Video International. Day told the FT that Prime Video’s advertising load would “ramp up a little bit more into 2025.” The move toward more ads next year comes after Amazon introduced ads before programs, but not in the middle of them. Though Day did not specify whether the increased ad load would mean ads will now play during a show, many of Amazon’s streaming competitors already display ads in this way. Reached for comment about the plan, Amazon indicated that it will still not be as ad heavy as its competitors. “We have not changed our plans to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers, and evaluate advertising volumes to help ensure we’re delivering a great customer experience,” a spokesperson told Fast Company. Day said Amazon’s choice of not including ads in the middle of shows was “a bit of a contrarian approach to take to things from us. But . . . it’s actually gone much better than we even anticipated” and noted that the method had been a “gentle entry into advertising that has exceeded customers expectations in terms of what the ad experience would be like.” She also noted that churn since the addition of ads had “been much, much less than we anticipated.” “Churn” is a term that refers to people canceling their subscriptions, which is often a reflection of dissatisfaction with a streaming service—whether that stems from too many ads or not enough compelling content to keep the viewer subscribed month after month. Why is Amazon doing this? Money. Amazon is doing this for money. Despite nearly every tech giant and legacy media company diving head first into streaming from about 2019 onwards, most have now found that streaming services are deeply unprofitable—or will take longer to realize profits than expected. This is because subscribers are constantly seeking out new original content, even though said content is expensive to produce. The fees from subscriptions alone are not enough to produce the content while paying for all the other costs of keeping the streaming service running—not to mention having anything left over for profits. So streaming services have increasingly turned to ads as a way to generate extra revenue. Amazon now wants more ads to increase that revenue. Amazon says it has a global audience for its Prime Video service of about 200 million people, with more than half of those viewers in the United States. Such a large number of users could be a powerful draw for advertisers—at least, that’s what Amazon hopes as it gets ready to roll out even more ads to Prime Video. And these won’t be just your ordinary non-interactive spots. The FT says Amazon will unveil interactive “shoppable” ads for Prime Video, which will allow viewers to add an advertised product to their Amazon shopping cart without having to leave the show they are watching.
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Earlier this year, Amazon added advertisements to Amazon Prime Video for all subscribers—including those who pay for the service independently or get it through their existing Prime membership.
But now there’s more bad news for Prime Video viewers: Amazon plans to ramp up the number of ads a viewer sees in 2025. Here’s what you need to know.
More ads are coming to Prime Video in 2025
The news that Amazon plans on pushing more ads to viewers starting next year comes from the Financial Times, which reported on comments by Kelly Day, Amazon’s vice president of Prime Video International.
Day told the FT that Prime Video’s advertising load would “ramp up a little bit more into 2025.”
The move toward more ads next year comes after Amazon introduced ads before programs, but not in the middle of them. Though Day did not specify whether the increased ad load would mean ads will now play during a show, many of Amazon’s streaming competitors already display ads in this way.
Reached for comment about the plan, Amazon indicated that it will still not be as ad heavy as its competitors. “We have not changed our plans to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers, and evaluate advertising volumes to help ensure we’re delivering a great customer experience,” a spokesperson told Fast Company.
Day said Amazon’s choice of not including ads in the middle of shows was “a bit of a contrarian approach to take to things from us. But . . . it’s actually gone much better than we even anticipated” and noted that the method had been a “gentle entry into advertising that has exceeded customers expectations in terms of what the ad experience would be like.”
She also noted that churn since the addition of ads had “been much, much less than we anticipated.”
“Churn” is a term that refers to people canceling their subscriptions, which is often a reflection of dissatisfaction with a streaming service—whether that stems from too many ads or not enough compelling content to keep the viewer subscribed month after month.
Why is Amazon doing this?
Money. Amazon is doing this for money. Despite nearly every tech giant and legacy media company diving head first into streaming from about 2019 onwards, most have now found that streaming services are deeply unprofitable—or will take longer to realize profits than expected.
This is because subscribers are constantly seeking out new original content, even though said content is expensive to produce. The fees from subscriptions alone are not enough to produce the content while paying for all the other costs of keeping the streaming service running—not to mention having anything left over for profits.
So streaming services have increasingly turned to ads as a way to generate extra revenue. Amazon now wants more ads to increase that revenue.
Amazon says it has a global audience for its Prime Video service of about 200 million people, with more than half of those viewers in the United States. Such a large number of users could be a powerful draw for advertisers—at least, that’s what Amazon hopes as it gets ready to roll out even more ads to Prime Video.
And these won’t be just your ordinary non-interactive spots. The FT says Amazon will unveil interactive “shoppable” ads for Prime Video, which will allow viewers to add an advertised product to their Amazon shopping cart without having to leave the show they are watching.
