Starting next week, Amazon Prime Video will feel dramatically different thanks to the introduction of ads. But don’t expect a static experience, with one Amazon executive promising that the company will be monitoring the user data and quickly make adjustments as needed.
“We’ll take a more iterative approach,” Andrew Bennett, vice president and head of video partnerships at Amazon, told Cord Cutters News in an interview earlier this month.
While Bennett wouldn’t go into details of the launch of ads, he reiterated the company’s vow to serve fewer ads than any other linear or other streaming service. “We’re not going to blow (Prime Video) up over one product feature launch,” he said.
While other streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix have introduced cheaper ad-based subscription plans, Amazon has gone the unusual route of rolling out ads to everyone. That’s partly a result of the fact that people don’t pay for Prime Video — since it comes bundled with a Prime membership. Instead, you can opt out of those ads by paying a $2.99-per-month fee.
Bennett views the move differently, saying that the ads allow Prime members to get the same access to content without having to pay a higher membership fee.
Some of that content may include a show starring YouTube sensation MrBeast, which Amazon is reportedly willing to fork over nearly $100 million to air exclusively on Prime Video.