According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, Amazon is in discussions to introduce an ad-supported tier for its popular streaming service, Prime Video. While the talks are still in the early stages, they have been taking place over the course of the past few weeks.
Currently, Prime Video is available either as part of the $14.99 per month Prime membership or as a standalone subscription for $8.99 per month with users also having the option to add on additional ad-free subscriptions to services like Max, Paramount Plus, and Showtime through Prime Video Channels.
Prime Video is available either as part of the $14.99 per month Prime membership or as a standalone subscription for $8.99 per month. (Image: “File:Amazon Prime Video Streaming (40845733273).jpg” by Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA)
Exploring different strategies
Amazon is reportedly evaluating different strategies for implementing ads within Prime Video. One potential approach is to increase the number of ads shown to existing Prime subscribers while offering the choice to pay more for an ad-free experience along with other added features.
The ad breaks are expected to be brief, but it remains unknown how they will compare to the three to four minutes of ads per hour promised by Max, or the potential cost of the ad-supported tier — for now, Amazon has chosen not to comment on the matter.
Introducing an ad-supported tier for Prime Video aligns with Amazon’s expanding presence in the advertising industry (which yielded $9.5 billion in revenue according to its most recent earnings report). Additionally, Amazon is focusing on strengthening Freevee, its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service, by incorporating content from Prime Video.
Titles like “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “A League of Their Own” will be included. In the face of economic uncertainties, an ad-supported tier could be a means for Amazon to generate additional revenue.
Alongside the potential ad-supported tier, Amazon is reportedly engaged in discussions with Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount to offer ad-supported versions of Max and Paramount Plus respectively through Prime Video Channels.
There are also talks of Amazon bidding for the streaming rights to National Basketball Association games, which will expire in 2025 — such moves would enhance Amazon’s sports streaming offerings, which currently include Thursday Night Football.
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