From January 2024 in the USA, and from April in Italy, users of Amazon Prime Video they started to see the advertising within the contents transmitted by the streaming platform. Exactly as Netflix and Disney+ also did, Amazon also allowed users to pay more to remove advertising: in Italy the subscription without commercials costs 1.99 euros more per month.
Money that, perhaps, more users will be willing to spend because advertising on Prime Video will soon be available will increase: we start from the USA, but we already know that Amazon’s new policy will be extended to all markets. The e-commerce and streaming giant wants, in fact, maximize revenue for each individual user.
Prime Video: advertising paused
The problem with subscriptions with advertising is always that of maintaining a balance acceptable to the user: by increasing the commercials you earn more, but only until the user feels that the advertising is too much and decides to cancel the subscription.
Amazon’s response to this problem, at the moment, is to increase advertising by inserting it at a time when it shouldn’t be very annoying: when content is paused.
They will be, at least in the USA and according to what is reported Ars Technica, advertisements that are very different from those shown by other streaming services. Amazon, in fact, will show a product carousel profiled on the user’s tastes and previous purchases and will allow you to buy them directly on Amazon itself.
In practice, since the Prime Video and Amazon user profiles are linked, Amazon will allow those who watch Prime Video content to add a product to the cart and finalize the purchase immediately, or later when it comes back up Amazon.com.
Can it be done in Europe?
If this is what’s going to happen in USAwe cannot take for granted that the exact same thing will also arrive in Europe. That Amazon plans to increase advertising on Prime VideoIn fact, it is certain but whether it can do it in this way remains to be demonstrated.
In Europe, in fact, the two infamous regulations are in force DMA And DSA which regulate the operation of the “large online platforms” and the “gatekeeper“.
Amazon is both aVery Large Online Platform“, according to Digital Services Act (DSA)be a “gatekeeper“, according to Digital Markets Act (DMA). The combination of the two prevents, at least in theory, Amazon from using the data of its European users too casually.
EuropeIn practice, it could challenge Amazon’s use of the data collected while browsing e-commerce for the purposes of displaying commercials on the streaming platform.
