- Amazon has increased the number of commercials it’s running on Prime Video content. The ad load has jumped from 2.5 to three minutes to between four and six minutes.
Amazon is getting a lot more comfortable with advertisements on its Prime Video streaming service.
The company has bumped up the number of ads on programming to between four and six minutes per hour, according to a study by Adweek. That’s up from between two to three and a half minutes just 18 months ago, when Amazon first added advertising in January of 2024.
Amazon had hinted last year that it was planning to increase its advertising load. It’s a notable shift from the company’s early claims that it would “strive to deliver an experience with meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers.”
Amazon in a statement to Fortune, said “We remain focused on prioritizing ad innovation over volume. While demand continues to grow, our commitment is to improving ad experiences rather than simply increasing the number of ads shown. … We will continue to invest in this important work, creating meaningful innovations that benefit both customers and advertisers alike.”
Amazon’s addition of advertisements and commercials angered many users who had gotten used to the service being ad-free for so many years. The vow of “meaningfully fewer ads” was meant to quell that discord. As other services have embraced ads and the streaming market has matured, though, Amazon seemingly sees an opportunity to increase the number it shows.
Because Prime Video is included in a Prime account, the service has a user base that is significantly larger than many other streaming services, but many Prime holders don’t watch Prime Video, so the value proposition for advertisers wasn’t ideal. (The company also lets viewers skip the ads by paying an extra fee each month.)
While the additional ads could frustrate some users, Adweek notes Prime Video viewers still see significantly fewer commercials than people who watch linear television. Ad loads on those networks typically range from 13 to 16 minutes per hour.