For the FY23 Amazon earnings call a couple of months ago, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company has “increasing conviction that Prime Video can be a large and profitable business on its own”.
Amazon Prime Video launched with ads at the end of January 2024. According to Hub Entertainment Research, a large number Amazon Prime Video viewer shifted from watching ad-free only to watching ad-supported video.
The researchers said that there is no evidence that putting subscribers on an ad-supported tier has resulted in a backlash and there was no measurable effect on either Amazon’s subscription levels.
The findings show that the launch of advertising as the default Amazon Prime Video service has had an immediate and dramatic impact on the ad-supported ecosystem. They are now the #1 in share of ad-supported subscriptions.
What does this mean for Retail Media? The Amazon Advertising juggernaut has passed the test of whether it can convert Prime Video viewers to its ad-supported network. This means that its data-driven audience targeting will only become more powerful, as the scale has now increased hugely.
Stay informed
Our editor carefully curates a dedicated Retail Media newsletter on a bi-weekly basis, filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research, click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter.
