Amazon is in the middle of negotiations with top ad agencies for its new Prime Video ad tier, but media buyers are balking at the high price ask despite ad rates well below those of competitive streamers.

In initial talks with agencies and advertisers, Amazon has priced the Prime Video ad tier at $30 to $38 CPMs, or the cost per thousand impressions, according to three media buyers currently in talks with Amazon.

“The CPMs are more manageable than Netflix, but in a soft market they have to be more than manageable,” said one media buyer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The offer has to be something really enticing.”

Last month, Amazon announced it would launch ads within Prime Video, putting out a new flood of connected TV ad inventory that would directly compete with Netflix’s new ad tier and other premium streamers. Netflix hit marketer resistance when it first came to market last year asking advertisers to commit to CPMs around $60, although its recent upfront negotiations settled at CPMs in the $40 range, Ad Age previously reported.

Amazon seems to have adjusted to market realities with its lower CPMs, a media buyer said. At the same time, Amazon wants major media holding companies to commit to advance investments of $100 million and higher, which “are in some cases more than upfront deals that are currently signed with Amazon,” the buyer said.

“Amazon has been rigid on having fixed budgets and there’s a pretty high minimum and they’re asking for high commitments from agencies,” the buyer said, “and all that is going to play into agency thirst for this.”

Amazon poorly timed the market to make a grab for 2024 budgets, said a second media buyer, because brands and their agencies have already committed to upfront ad deals for the coming year. “Our budgets have already been challenged,” said the second buyer. “Then [Amazon] comes with a new offering that we’re super interested in right after we close a huge set of budget line items. So we’re just evaluating right now.”

The second buyer said that Amazon’s ask is “so far off at this point” that the agency is still in the early stages of evaluating the offer, how much it needs to come down and how many of its clients would even be able to buy in at this point.

Amazon was not immediately available for comment.

More from Ad Age: Amazon is the world’s largest advertiser

The Information first reported Amazon’s aggressive market approach. Last month, Ad Age reported that Amazon sent its pitch to ad agencies, touting 115 million monthly viewers in the U.S., who would potentially see ads in Prime Video originals, including “The Boys” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”

Regardless, the potential audience for ads on Prime Video is a major pull for advertisers, who have been frustrated by the smaller ad-supported subscriber base for competitors such as Netflix and Disney+. According to Nielsen’s September edition of its monthly Gauge report, which measures the share of TV consumption across linear and streaming, Prime Video accounts for 3.6% of all streaming consumption, third behind YouTube and Netflix (although this doesn’t account for the amount that sees ads).

A third buyer said that the ease of transacting with Amazon, in combination with the scale, will be a main differentiator for Prime Video. The buyer said Prime Video’s offering will feature the mature capabilities of Amazon’s ads business, including measurement from Nielsen, iSpot.tv and VideoAmp, and will be purchasable through self-serve buying platforms, while a competitor like Netflix is “hamstrung by a stupid Microsoft deal” as it develops its tech capabilities.

Amazon has been making big moves in streaming TV and online video advertising in the past year. Last year, it started airing  “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video, and it runs ads on Freevee, its free ad-supported TV (FAST) app on connected TV. Amazon also owns Twitch, the live streaming site, and FireTV, the over-the-top streaming platform. Amazon is competing on the premium side of streaming by promoting its high-budget programs on Prime Video.

Amazon also has a DSP—demand-side platform—that delivers advertiser demand across the internet and connected TV. This week, Amazon announced updates to its DSP, and there is a new connected TV ad unit called “sponsored TV” designed for smaller brands to buy video ads through the Amazon Ads console.