Ads will become more and more numerous and annoying on Prime Video! Amazon has announced the arrival of three new advertising formats intended to make consumption more “interactive” and “attractive”. O joy!
Amazon Prime Video also ended up giving in to the lure of advertising. Since April 9, users have been forced to pay an additional 1.99 euros per month to be able to get rid of ads – which therefore increases the Prime subscription to a total of 8.38 euros per month. A policy which is in line with those of its competitors, Netflix and Disney+, which also offer subscriptions with advertising – and this appears to be very profitable for the moment in view of the financial results of the N rouge. And, frankly, this new system is particularly annoying, because all the advertisements, even if they are quite short, are not placed before the start of the film or an episode of a series, but occur during, without hesitation to cut a dramatic scene or an epic action scene. Needless to say, it’s really very frustrating. But Amazon does not intend to stop there and intends to introduce three new ad formats this year that are somewhat different from traditional advertisements. Indeed, on May 8, Amazon announced in a statement wanting to make advertising interruptions on its streaming platform more “interactive” and “attractive”. We look forward…
Amazon Prime Video: advertising during reading breaks
The first format will be “ad breaks”, i.e. advertisements that will appear translucent as soon as the user pauses the content and will contain two buttons, “Add to cart” and “Learn more”, so that they can purchase products without having to leave the viewed content. It’s a system similar to the one that YouTube wants to put in place soon. Also featured will be carousels that allow customers to browse and purchase products on the e-commerce platform during commercial breaks on Prime Video. The ad will automatically pause to allow them to navigate, and will automatically resume playback when interaction with the ad is interrupted.
Finally, SVOD will integrate interactive advertisements which will help advertisers “to improve their communication by entertaining customers with information about their brand while giving them the opportunity to shop on Amazon, learn more about services and products, and even unlock rewards”such as Amazon shopping credits towards the purchase of eligible items.
All these joyful new features will arrive during the year 2024. Amazon relies heavily on advertising, because Prime Video is capable of reaching 200 million consumers on average each month. Interactive video ads using TV remotes debuted in 2021 before this format expanded to the majority of the TV streaming portfolio, including shows, movies and live sports on Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV Channels, as well as third-party TV streaming apps. Still, the bet is risky for Amazon, which must not “saturate” the viewing of advertising users, for fear that the latter will turn away from SVOD. Especially since competitors’ subscriptions with advertisements are less expensive, even if Amazon offers many other services in addition to Prime Video.