Amazon Prime Video Doesn't Want to Be Just a Default Prime Perk. Here's How the Streaming Service Became a Major Player.

Amazon Prime Video is much than a broadside use of a Prime rank — Amazon is building retired nan streaming work to guidelines connected its own.

Jeff Bezos saw Prime Video "as an opportunity to build a media company," not conscionable arsenic an offshoot of Prime, Prime Video caput Mike Hopkins told Reuters connected Wednesday.

Amazon has worked towards that imagination for 4 years. Prime Video became nan largest ad-supported streaming work successful nan U.S. successful January aft it started peppering movies and shows pinch ads by default for its 115 cardinal U.S. subscribers. Prime Video comes pinch Amazon's $14.99 per period Prime membership; arsenic of January, opting for nary ads costs $2.99 extra per month.

Related: Sales Could Top $14 Billion connected Amazon Prime Day, Hitting an All-Time High — Here's Why

Most subscribers chose not to salary much per period for ad-free viewing — only 15% opted to salary extra. The move to ads had nary effect connected Amazon's wide subscriber count, according to a Hub survey, and could bring successful $1.3 cardinal successful advertisement gross this twelvemonth and $2.3 cardinal adjacent year, according to Wall Street investigation patient MoffettNathanson.

"Virtually overnight, Amazon Prime Video dramatically transformed nan video advertizing ecosystem," said Mark Loughney, a Hub elder consultant. Jeff Bezos. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

Amazon framed nan displacement to ads arsenic a measurement to support investing successful Prime Video. Amazon MGM Studios had its biggest twelvemonth successful 2023 pinch 68 Emmy nominations for original contented for illustration "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

Nielsen's June TV and streaming report recovered that though Prime Video was not arsenic popular arsenic Netflix and YouTube, it came retired up of Hulu, Disney+, and Peacock. The Prime Video original bid The Boys drew 4 cardinal viewing minutes successful June.

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