Amazon is on track to exceed its internal target of $1.8 billion in upfront video advertising commitments, a person familiar with the financials has confirmed to Deadline.
Sosie Bacon, Amanda Righetti & Janet Montgomery Among 5 Added To Prime Video's 'Scarpetta'
The strong buy-in from advertisers follows a move last January by Prime Video to start running ads on all film and TV titles in the U.S. and nine other countries, except for subscribers willing to pay extra to avoid ads. The streaming service hosted its first upfront event in New York during the traditional mid-May corridor alongside traditional broadcast network parents and tech rivals Netflix and YouTube. Along with the promotional push and hefty programming budget, the company has also reportedly been willing to price their ad inventory more attractively in order to stimulate demand as it ramps up its sales efforts.
The Information reported earlier Thursday on the upfront results.
An Amazon rep declined to comment on the report when contacted by Deadline.
In recent years, Amazon has made video advertising a pillar of its broader corporate strategy, pursuing major sports rights as a key element of its ad-friendly programming. The company is in its third year of exclusive NFL Thursday Night Football streams and will begin an 11-year agreement with the NBA in the 2025-26 season.
Along with those offerings on Prime Video, Amazon also operates the FAST service Freevee as well as gamer-centric livestreaming platform Twitch and has highlighted them for advertisers in recent years.
2024 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming
The overall streaming sector has shifted toward ads over the past two years after a longtime initial phase when it was viewed as de facto ad-free and subscription-driven medium. Along with new ad tiers coming to Netflix and other outlets, FAST services have become a large and growing part of the landscape, especially for traditional players looking to replace declining linear ad revenue.
A survey this week from research firm eMarketer said that five streamers would book at least $1 billion in ad revenue during 2024, up from just two in 2020. Amazon ranked third on eMarketer’s list, after Hulu and YouTube, with an estimated $3.13 billion.
In his annual letter to shareholders released last April, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy mentioned the ad push and estimated the company’s overall reach at 200 million monthly viewers. “Streaming TV advertising is growing quickly and off to a strong start,” he wrote.
Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters was asked about the competitive streaming ad landscape during an appearance last week at the FT Business of Entertainment Summit. “Amazon came into the market in a pretty strong way,” he said. “We came with the thesis that advertising is an option” that would appeal to certain consumers at its $6.99-a-month price point. Amazon, by contrast, “is an advertising company. It is a core part of their DNA. …. Very much like Amazon does, they sort of came at it and said – what’s their mantra, ‘Your margin is my opportunity,’ I think, right? They came in said, ‘We’re going to go drop to the bottom, essentially, and start to compete from that basis.”
'Cross' Trailer: Aldis Hodge Is On The Hunt For A Killer In Amazon's Alex Cross Series; First-Look Photos
Local News
Comments / 0