Amazon Prime ads are ridiculous with doubled ad video time
Amazon Prime Video has increased ad loads to 4–6 minutes per hour, doubling the initial 2–3.5 minutes, to maximize revenue and boost their advertising business. This strategy, which follows industry trends of ad-supported streaming, aims to monetize the user base while encouraging subscribers to pay an extra $2.99/month for an ad-free experience.
Amazon Prime Video customers who do not pay Amazon extra for an ad-free experience may have noticed an increase in advertisement since the introduction of ads on the platform in 2024.
A report by Adweek suggests that Amazon has doubled the playtime of video ads per hour on Amazon Prime.
Amazon Prime Video increases ad time, causing subscriber frustration
In 2024, Amazon promised to keep the ad load light for customers. That meant between two and three-and-a-half minutes of ads for every watched hour on Prime Video. The ad-time has now gone up and viewers have to watch between four and six minutes of ads for every hour they watch on Amazon Prime.
Adweek quotes an Amazon representative who confirmed the change "to an ad buyer in an email" earlier this month.
Amazon has not yet informed Prime Video customers about the change. The change did not come out of the blue. When Amazon launched ads for all Prime Video customers, it knew that it had to keep the load light to keep the number of critical voices low.
All major competitors introduced ad-powered plans, which users could subscribe to. They did not touch the existing plans. Amazon did the opposite. Introduce ads for all and introduce an ad-free add-on package for customers who did not want to sit through ads while watching Prime Video. This skyrocketed the number of viewers with ads to 150 million immediately.
Amazon hinted at an increase in ad volume in late 2024 to investors and it appears that the company has now implemented that change.
Netfllix continues to be the service with the lightest ad showings. Amazon, with the change, moved into the middle tier regarding ads, while services like Hulu or Paramount+ are considered heavy on ads.
Still, Amazon Prime Video customers will see ads more frequently when they use the service. It remains to be seen if there will be a reaction of the 150 million Amazon Prime Video subscribers.
Amazon is not the only service that is pushing ads on its service. Google owned YouTube announced recently that Premium Lite subscribers would see more ads on the platform as well.
The state of streaming is in a rather sad spiral towards advertisement. First set out as an alternative to cable TV, it is in course to become what it once tried to replace.
COMPLETELY OFFTOPIC.
The website’s responsiveness is very bad since a few weeks, mostly half a minute or more. Ping is ok.
Am I the only one with problems using this website?
Otherwise thank you for the many superb articles. Visit it every day.
I used to subscribe to commercial Dutch TV channels, but became absolutely sick to death of the constant interruptions to programmes I was watching and finally terminated all my subscriptions. That was back in 2012. It took a bit of getting used to at first and I started buying DVDs as an alternative, but now I know I did the right thing.
As for Amazon Prime, I did consider it once because I buy a lot of DVDs these days and Prime has the option of free delivery even if you only purchase a single disc. But there was an adder under the grass which was that the free delivery only applies to the country you’re resident in and I buy all my DVDs from Amazon UK.
Actually, I don’t even buy much anymore because Amazon UK raised delivery charges to €10,57 plus an addition €0,99 per kilo weight which is downright ridiculous if you only bought a DVD costing £5,00. Nowadays, I buy the odd DVD secondhand. It usually takes three weeks to arrive since all resellers send stuff by the cheapest method available. But they do at least arrive.
I suppose tthough that these costly delivery charges are a means to persuade users to switch to Prime Video. Not gonna happen.
If you’re paying for the service, you shouldn’t have to deal with ads. It’s absurd and should be illegal that ads are creeping into paid services. These subscription traps will never change as long as people keep falling for them. Good luck everyone. I’ll continue to sail the seas.
We have Netflix and Disney+ for the kids. If they put ads in, we will drop them and pirate the content instead.
I like old movies. I use a firestick. If other free streaming services are running the same movie I usually go with them instead of Amazon, usually far less commercials.
Amazon drank the ad KoolAid, not happy with the money they get from Prime subscriptions.
I would not be surprised if Amazon increased ads in the future. That will drive people away, perhaps even make them consider dropping their prime subscriptions.
Amazon overspent without thinking. 1/2 billion dollars for a lame Lord of the Rings series was absolutely stupid.
Am I subscribed to any streaming service? Definitely not, none, be they the major ones, be it those if France.
I did try once a French streaming service offered by ISP for a month’s free trial : had to abandon it immediately given the service wasn’t compatible with my anti-ad and security environment.
I cannot stand advertisement, at least not in its in its “always more” deployment. Payed plan free of ads? Not motivated.
I don’t see why I’d subscribe to whatever streaming service (music as video) when I connect to dozens of radio stations with the pleasure of (re-)discovering the tunes I like, the genres I’m fond of, when I hardly look at TV programs, have plenty of videos everywhere on the Web and don’t give a damn of being in the row of those who debate at the coffee-machine about the latest streaming movies. I prefer the cinema theaters anyway : my feeling is that any form of pleasure is doubled when the pleasure is conceived as an event, reduced when it becomes a way of life so to say. You check what’s going on in the wide cultural arena and you decide or not to go, as an ‘event’, rather than yawning.
To summarize, streaming services are not included in my approach of the Web, just doesn’t thrill me, too formatted, excessively tied to a quest of users’ addiction. I like it the old way and my age likely interferes.
Advertising is like cancer. It just gets worse and worse. I can remember as a child that my father got cable because there were channels that didn’t have any advertising. Then as time went by, it crept in until there was the same amount of advertising on those channels as in regular broadcast, network TV.
Advertising sucks, it ruins the quality of life more than it contributes to improving it. But since $$$$ are involved, it continues on.
Maybe when AI finally takes over, all advertisers will be exterminated. One can only hope.