Amazon says more ads are coming to its Prime Video streaming service.
Speaking to The Financial Times, Kelly Day, vice president of Prime Video International, confirmed that the streamer would be introducing more ad slots for brands to target sometime next year. Prime Video debuted ads in February, at which time users could pay an additional $2.99/month to remove them. While Amazon had revealed different kinds of ads earlier this year, Day is now elaborating on the company’s approach to this sort of mid-stream marketing.
Interestingly, she claimed that the February debut was actually a “very light ad load” in terms of the frequency and placement of the ads. According to her, the company was aiming for a “gentle entry into advertising,” and it’s since “exceeded customers expectations in terms of what the ad experience would be like.”
To that point, she said that the company seen “much, much less” churn that it had anticipated following the introduction of the ads. The Financial Times notes that Day declined to reveal exactly how many people are paying for extra to remove ads but said it’s less than the 20 percent that some analysts have predicted.
Overall, Amazon’s approach to ads on Prime Video has been markedly different than other streamers. For instance, the likes of Netflix, Disney+ and Crave have all rolled out lower-cost ad-enabled tiers ($5.99/month, $7.99/month and $9.99/month) as of late, but Amazon has kept its single $9.99/month or $99.99/year Prime membership (with which Prime Video is included) intact while introducing the $2.99/month fee to remove ads.
It remains to be seen when, exactly, Amazon will bring more ads to Prime Video or how much more prominent they will become.
Source: The Financial Times
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