Amazon is on track to exceed its internal target of $1.8 billion in upfront video ad commitments, a person familiar with the financials confirmed to Deadline.

The strong buy-in from advertisers follows a move by Prime Video last January to show ads on all film and TV titles in the US and nine other countries, except for subscribers who are willing to pay extra to avoid ads . The streaming service hosted its first upfront event in New York during the traditional mid-May corridor, along with traditional broadcast network parents and tech rivals Netflix and YouTube. Along with the promotional push and hefty programming budget, the company has also reportedly been willing to price its ad inventory more attractively to drive demand as it ramps up its sales efforts.

The information reported the preliminary results earlier Thursday.

An Amazon representative declined to comment on the report when contacted by Deadline.

In recent years, Amazon has made video advertising a pillar of its broader business strategy, pursuing major sports rights as a key element of its ad-friendly programming. The company is in its third year of exclusive NFL Thursday night football streams and will enter into an 11-year deal with the NBA during the 2025-2026 season.

In addition to its Prime Video offering, Amazon also operates the FAST service Freevee and the gamer-focused livestreaming platform Twitch, and has brought them to the attention of advertisers in recent years.

The overall streaming industry has shifted toward advertising over the past two years, after a long initial phase where it was de facto seen as an ad-free and subscription-based medium. Along with new levels of advertising coming to Netflix and other outlets, FAST services have become a large and growing part of the landscape, especially for traditional players looking to replace declining linear ad revenue.

A survey from research firm eMarketer this week found that five streamers would post at least $1 billion in ad revenue by 2024, up from just two in 2020. Amazon ranks third on eMarketer’s list, behind Hulu and YouTube, with a estimated $3.13 billion.

In his annual letter to shareholders, published last April, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy mentioned the advertising push and estimated the company’s total reach at 200 million monthly viewers. “Streaming TV advertising is growing rapidly and off to a strong start,” he wrote.

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters was asked about the competitive streaming advertising landscape during an appearance at the FT Business of Entertainment Summit last week. “Amazon entered the market in a pretty strong way,” he said. “We came up with the proposition that advertising is an option” that would appeal to certain consumers at the $6.99 per month price point. Amazon, on the other hand, “is an advertising company. It is a core part of their DNA. …. Just like Amazon does, they kind of came at it and said, what’s their mantra, “Your margin is my opportunity,” I guess, right? They came in and said, ‘We’re essentially going to the bottom, and starting to compete from that base.’