It wasn’t that long ago that an ad-free experience was the default for streaming services. But companies need to make sure the line keeps going up, and one way to do that is to monetize the audience by serving them ads. Amazon introduced ads to its Prime Video streaming service last year, with the promise that it would be light and unintrusive. Well, time to juice those profits, because Adweek reports that Amazon will double the number of ads that it serves per hour to its viewers. Look at this way, it’s confirmation that your time is valuable!
Adweek first got wind of Amazon’s incoming uptick in ad spots from ad buyers, but Amazon confirmed via a spokesperson that Prime Video will increase its ad runs to “four to six minutes per hour.” That’s double what the company started with when it first added advertisements to its streaming experience back in January 2024. At that point, the company was promising just two to three and a half minutes of ads per hour for marketers. But behind the scenes, it seems this jump was always in the cards, as Adweek reported that Amazon has been telegraphing the increased ad load to investors for a while now.
Amazon’s decision to insert ads was controversial in the first place, as the company pushed its Prime subscribers who previously enjoyed Prime Video without interruption into an ad-supported tier and required them to pay $3 more per month in order to continue watching without a word from the sponsors. Now those breaks are going to be more frequent—or at least longer.
Serving more ads is just the latest in Amazon’s efforts to monetize its streaming platform, which it has poured billions of dollars into creating content like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “The Boys,” and “Fallout.” Earlier this year, it was reported that the company would introduce auctions for ad spots and more contextual advertisements using its vast amount of market targeting data. All of that is probably great for advertisers but comes at the expense of the user experience.
This outcome is inevitable, though, when the only option is more growth. Netflix swore off advertisements for a long time, until it needed to figure out a way to bring in people who weren’t subscribed or unsubscribed due to price increases, at which point it introduced its ad-supported tier. And part of the need to make sure there is constant, endless growth, is because these companies start out playing with other people’s money, driving down competitors with low prices until they corner a market and then bleed them when they need to show a return on investment. So the content might get worse, and the viewing experience definitely will, but maybe you’ll rest easier knowing the investors are getting a solid dividend this quarter. If that doesn’t keep them happy, just mention something about AI.
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