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Amazon has doubled the time video ads are shown on Prime Video

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.

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.

Closing Words

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.

Now you: are you subscribed to any streaming service? With or without ads? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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