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Amazon plans to roll out a greater number of ads in its blockbuster TV shows and movies on Prime Video next year, as the US tech giant ramps up its business in ad-funded streaming services.

The company said it had not seen a sharp decline in subscribers since it introduced advertising on its Prime Video platform eight months ago, allaying fears among executives of a customer backlash as it tries to attract more brands to its streaming service. convince.

Kelly Day, vice president of Prime Video International, which oversees the streaming video business in global markets, told the Financial Times that by 2025 there will be an increasing number of advertising spaces for brands to target.

Ahead of the first ‘advance’ campaign in London on Wednesday evening – when TV companies present their plans to advertisers to attract money in the coming year – Day said the ‘advertising load’ would ‘increase a bit more’ in 2025.

Amazon has joined a highly competitive market for ad-supported streaming services. Most competing platforms, including Netflix, Max, Paramount+ and Disney+, have introduced an ad-supported tier at a lower price than ad-free subscriptions.

On Wednesday it will try to win over advertisers with new data showing it can reach around 19 million British viewers every month – almost a third of the population. In total, Amazon said it had a global ad reach of about 200 million – the average monthly potential viewership of ad-supported Prime Video – with more than half in the US.

Day said Prime Video was deliberately launched earlier this year with a “very light ad burden” – for example, no ad breaks in the middle of a program – which was a “soft entry into advertising that has exceeded customer expectations in terms of how the ad experience would be”.

The e-commerce group automatically switched its more than 200 million global subscribers to the ad-supported service unless they actively chose to pay more for the premium ad-free service.

Day said: “We know it was a bit of a contrarian approach to take things from us. But . . . it actually went much better than we expected.”

She said “churn” – when customers leave Prime service – was also “much, much less than we expected.” . . we haven’t really seen a groundswell of people opting out or canceling.”

Day declined to say how many customers have switched to pay more for their ad-free option, but said it is lower than the 20 percent figure estimated by some analysts.

Amazon will also unveil interactive and shoppable ad formats for Prime Video. Viewers can add an item to their cart or learn more about a brand by simply clicking on their remote or scanning their mobile device, without having to leave shows on the streaming service. According to rivals and analysts, Amazon has a uniquely strong ability to convert advertising into sales on its own retail platform.

Advertising has become a fast-growing and highly profitable source of revenue for Amazon in recent years. Revenue from its digital advertising business rose by a fifth to $12.8 billion in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous year.

Some production companies have expressed concern that streaming services have cut back on their spending on new shows after an initial fizzle out in their battle for subscriber growth.

But Day said Amazon had generally increased spending on content for Prime, including more on rights to live sports. She also confirmed plans for live news coverage of the US elections and said live sports, such as the National Football League’s Thursday Night Football, and events such as music, will remain important.

Ratings were also up this year, she said, thanks to original content like Mr and Mrs Smith, Road House, Fallout And Rings of power. Next year she pointed to a strong number of new shows, such as the next series Falloutand films starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon.