The proportion of Brits accessing Amazon’s ad-supported streaming service, Prime Video, has surged by 15% over the last year and now reaches over 22 million adults. This compares to 5.5 million households accessing Netflix’s ad tiers (up 700,000 year-on-year).
Unlike Netflix, which was originally ad-free before debuting a lower-cost, ad-supported entry level, Prime Video moved all base users onto an ad tier early last year, requiring viewers to pay a premium to access content without ads. This was a gamble which appears to have paid off, with Prime Video’s audience remaining loyal and more users now accessing the ad-supported tier.
The results were revealed at the recent Amazon Upfront event, where marketers mingled with talent including Jimmy Carr and Kaleb Cooper. With both Prime Video and Netflix now firmly competing with broadcasters, many of the UK’s most-watched programming over the last year has been native to streaming platforms.
