AdWeek report claims gradual uptick in ad load, which ad buyers confirm is growing.
Amazon forced all Prime Video subscribers onto anew ad-based subscription tierin January 2024 unless users paid more for their subscription type. Now, the tech giant is reportedly showing twice as many ads to subscribers as it did when it started selling ad-based streaming subscriptions.
Currently, anyone who signs up for Amazon Prime (which is $15 per month or $139 per year) gets Prime Video with ads. If they don’t want to see commercials, they have to pay an extra $3 per month. One can also subscribe to Prime Video alone for $9 per month with ads or $12 per month without ads.
When Amazon originally announced the ad tier, it said it would deliver “meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers." Based on “six ad buyers and documents” ad trade publicationAdWeekreported viewing, Amazon has determined the average is four to six minutes of advertisements per hour.
“Prime Video ad load has gradually increased to four to six minutes per hour,” an Amazon representative said via email to an ad buyer this month, AdWeek reported.
That would mean that Prime Video subscribers are spending significantly more time sitting through ads than they did at the launch of Prime Video with ads. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) at the time, which cited an Amazon presentation it said it reviewed, "the average ad load at launch was two to three-and-a-half minutes.” However, when reached for comment, an Amazon Ads representative told Ars Technica that the WSJ didn’t confirm that figure directly with Amazon.
Amazon’s Ads spokesperson, however, declined to specify to Ars how many ads Amazon typically shows to Prime Videos subscribers today or in the past.
Instead, they shared a statement saying:
We remain focused on prioritizing ad innovation over volume. While demand continues to grow, our commitment is to improving ad experiences rather than simply increasing the number of ads shown. Since the beginning of this year alone, we've announced multiple capabilities, including Brand+, Complete TV, and new ad formats—all designed to deliver industry-leading relevancy and enhanced customer experiences. We will continue to invest in this important work, creating meaningful innovations that benefit both customers and advertisers alike.
Kendra Tang, programmatic supervisor at ad firm Rain the Growth Agency, told AdWeek that Amazon "told us the ad load would be increasing” and that she’s seen more ad opportunities made available in Amazon’s ad system.
Further evidence of Amazon's interest in more Prime Video ads came via an October 2024Financial Times report, where Kelly Day, VP of Prime Video International,saidthat Prime Video’s ad load will “ramp up a little bit more into 2025."
Prime Video claims 200 million subscribers, but many of these subscribers are acquired through Prime subscriptions and may not use Prime Video frequently or at all. Prime Video says that 150 million of its users are ad subscribers, with 130 million of thembeing in the US. This could help explain Prime Video's increasing ad load. Advertisers aren’t getting as many eyeballs as expected from those subscriber counts.
"They have more subscribers than any other ad-supported streamer, but many weren’t watching enough for that to matter," Doug Paladino, programmatic director at ad firm PMG, told AdWeek. "More ad load helps bring that back into balance."
Even at four to six minutes per hour, Prime Video is in the “middle tier” in terms of ad frequency, according to Paladino. For comparison, Netflix shows four to five minutes of ads per hour,PC Worldsays. Maxclaims“about 4 minutes” of ads hourly, and in testing fromThe Streamable, Peacock shows five to seven minutes of ads every hour. Linear TV shows 13 to 16 minutes of ads hourly, AdWeek noted.
With 2025 only about halfway through, time remains for Prime Video to continue that ad "ramp up" that it promised for the year. With Amazon previously stating that ads haven't driven away subscribers, it has wiggle room to push subscribers' limits andappeal to advertisersmore.