Your Prime Video viewing experience is about to get even worse - here's why

Aside from potentially giving you access to Prime Day deals and free shipping, Prime Video is one of the biggest benefits of the Amazon Prime experience.

But in my opinion, that started to change in January 2024, when Amazon replaced its cheapest plan with an ad-supported Prime Video tier and asked users to pony up an additional $3 per month to get rid of it. If you hated these ads as much as we did, your Prime Video viewing experience is going to get even worse.

That's because Kelly Day, Amazon's vice president of Prime Video International, confirmed to the Financial Times that the streaming service will indeed increase the number of ads shown, with Day commenting that Amazon's ad load will increase “many times over.” “would rise a little more in 2025”.

Day didn't get much more specific, so we can't say exactly when this change will happen, which territories it will roll out in first, or, crucially, exactly how much more intrusive the ads will become. While we know at least some news, the rumors of new ad formats are on the way (more on that in a moment).

In Day's words, Prime Video with Ads received a “very low advertising load” at launch, giving subscribers a “smooth entry into advertising that exceeded customer expectations for the advertising experience.” This is based on the fact that subscriber churn in response to the big change was “much, much lower than we expected.” And that's a revelation that doesn't surprise me too much.

I fundamentally disagreed with the introduction of Prime Video with Ads; Amazon should have followed the example of some of the best streaming services with ad-supported plans and launched it instead cheaper Plans.

Although I was frustrated by the change, I still paid for the same plan because I wanted to stream some of the best Prime Video shows, and I bet I'm not the only user with the same attitude. But maybe I'll change my mind in the midst of all these upcoming changes?

Okay, what will these new Prime Video ad formats look like?

New Prime Video interface with The Boys

(Image credit: Amazon)

The FT has also confirmed that Amazon will be rolling out some new ad formats to Prime Video, which is no surprise: we've known shoppable Prime Video ads have been coming to the service since May. These new ad formats are designed for “shoppability,” meaning they’re designed to help Amazon find new ways to get users to add products to their shopping carts.

In case you didn't know, the three new formats Amazon will be introducing are shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause screens, and trivia ads. An Ars Technica report from May went into more detail about what these new experiences would look like.

These carousel ads show slideshows of sponsors' products during Prime Video commercial breaks. Amazon claims that the ads automatically pause as customers browse and resume playing “when the ad interaction ends.”

The interactive break ads appear on Prime Video TV shows, movies and live sports, giving the streamer the ability to display ads beyond scheduled commercial breaks. When users pause a program, the service displays a transparent display with branded messages and images, as well as the option to add items to the shopping cart.

Apparently, advertisers can also use these ads to obtain the email addresses of volunteer viewers to reach interested customers and provide them with additional product information.

Finally, these interactive brand trivia ads provide facts about the brands/products featured. These trivia ads also try to sell things by offering customer rewards like Amazon shopping credit.

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On October 4, 2024 By John Fenwick

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Your Prime Video viewing experience is about to get even worse – here's why

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