Amazon Prime Video now reaches 19m in the UK
Amazon Prime Video’s average ad-supported monthly reach in the UK totals more than 19m users, the retail and streaming giant announced today at Amazon’s UK upfronts presentation.
It is the first time Amazon has publicly revealed its total commercial audience reach in the UK.
Earlier this year, the company joined TV measurement body Barb after it launched a default ad tier on Prime Video.
According to internal research shared at the event, more than half (52%) of Prime Video viewers do not watch any paid linear TV in the UK, highlighting the shift to streaming.
Further, those Prime Video viewers were found to spend 36% more on Amazon.co.uk compared with the average Amazon customer. The figure hints at how Prime Video’s core benefit to Amazon’s business is its use as a loss leader that incentivises retail shopping rather than necessarily seeking to turn a profit itself.
New ad formats
At the upfronts, Amazon also announced a number of new ad formats that seek to “lean in to digital interactivity”.
The new solutions include shoppable video ads, pause ads and carousel ads.
“These new ad formats enable viewers to learn more about, and make a purchase from, your brand without ever having to leaving the viewing experience,” explained Amazon Ads UK managing director Phil Christer. “This not only makes it easier for Prime members, but it also helps brands to unlock insights into lower-funnel interactions and better inform their campaign strategies.”
The ad solutions will officially launch in the UK in 2025; a specific date was not specified.
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Live sport investment core to Amazon’s TV strategy
Core to Prime Video’s consumer and commercial strategy has been significant investment in live sport — something that was highlighted during the event.
Amazon has exclusive rights for the US National Football League’s Thursday Night Football games and recently took over Tuesday night Uefa Champions League football coverage.
This summer, Prime Video also announced it would be introducing US men’s and women’s National Basketball Association games to the service through its licensing deal with the leagues.
NBA rights deal highlights importance of live sports and impact of streaming
Amazon’s slate of 87 NBA games will be available in the UK beginning with the 2025/26 season. The deal also includes rights to show the Play-In Tournament and a share of post-season games.
In the UK, Prime Video is also becoming the strategic partner and third-party distributor of NBA League Pass, which allows fans to watch all regular and post-season games for an additional monthly subscription cost.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s deal with the WNBA grants it the right to exclusively stream 30 regular-season games each season over the next 11 years, including some play-off games.
New productions
Much of the buzz at the upfronts was driven, however, by talent showing up to promote Prime Video’s flagship original programming to advertisers and marketers in attendance.
That included Priyanka Chopra-Jonas and Idris Elba (The Citadel), Guy Ritchie (Young Sherlock) and Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed and Bryce Dallas Howard (Deep Cover). Locally produced British programming was also highlighted by Amazon execs as important to growing Prime Video.
Despite the content line-up, Prime Video struggled with significant churn among UK audiences earlier this year, with Kantar reporting the streaming service had a “particularly tough” Q1, as share of new subscribers, total subscribers and proportion of Prime users engaging with the video service “fell significantly”.
The study highlighted that Prime Video saw “active net dissatisfaction with the number of ads being served” immediately following the institution of its default ad tier.
Prime typically sees a boost in subscriptions and usage ahead of the holiday season as more users sign up for access to Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and make use of Prime Video during the period.
Amazon Prime Video sees ‘significant’ UK churn following ad tier launch