Amazon to launch ads on Prime Video

Amazon is bringing ads to its Prime Video content. After months of rumors, the company announced today that it will begin showing ads beginning in early 2024. Ads are necessary to “continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time,” Amazon said in a statement. Ad Age Media Summit Hear from industry leaders during October event in NYC Register here Prime Video is included in Amazon Prime memberships or available for an individual fee of $8.99 per month. The service includes series such as “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” all of which have previously been available exclusively ad-free. The ads rollout will begin in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada in early 2024, with France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia following later in the year. According to the company, current viewers will be automatically phased into the ad offering, with no price increases for Amazon Prime memberships. However, those wishing to continue viewing episodes of “Daisy Jones and the Six,” for example, without ads, will be able to pay an additional $2.99 per month for an ad-free experience. Prime Video will aim “to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers,” Amazon said in a statement. Some Prime content already has ads While ads will be a new addition to Prime Video’s high-profile original series, the service isn’t totally new to the streaming ads game. In addition to Amazon’s existing ads across its retail site and connected TV platform Fire TV, advertisers have been able to place video ads in the streamer’s “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts, on its livestream platform Twitch and on its free, ad-supported streamer Freevee. Recent news: Advertisers aren’t quickly moving to streaming See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here Freevee exists as its own CTV app as well as in the Prime Video interface with programming listed under “Free with Ads.” Amazon, which experienced buzz earlier this year for Freevee’s hit show “Jury Duty,” announced during its NewFronts presentation that it would begin migrating older Prime Video originals to Freevee. Multiple media buyers confirmed FreeVee CPMs, or the cost to reach 1,000 viewers, were in the mid-$20s, but inventory on the streamer was often bought as part of larger Amazon buys rather than individually. Top streamers including Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+ and Peacock already have ad tiers, leaving Apple TV+ as the outlier among major platforms. Amazon Prime members will receive emails leading up to the addition of Prime Video ads several weeks prior to the launch with instructions on how to buy the ad-free version if they choose. Amazon Prime currently costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year.

Amazon to launch ads on Prime Video

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