BY PYMNTS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

Amazon has reportedly surpassed its goal of drawing $1.8 billion in ad spending commitments for its video streaming services after introducing ads on its Prime Video earlier this year.

That total includes ads on the company’s live sports telecasts, including the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, Seeking Alpha reported Friday (Sept. 27), citing a paywalled article by The Information.

Reached by PYMNTS, Amazon declined to comment on the report.

The company announced in September 2023 that it would begin including “limited advertisements” on Prime Video shows and movies in 2024, while also offering an ad-free option at additional cost.

“We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers,” Amazon said when announcing the move in a blog post.

The company’s announcement came at a time when advertisements were playing a greater role in streaming, PYMNTS reported in December. For example, Netflix launched its ad-supported tier during the previous year and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max streaming subscription was seeing a shift to its ad-supported models help drive revenue increases.

Netflix said in July that since introducing its ad-supported tier in late 2022, advertising has come to play a pivotal role in enhancing streaming profitability and bolstering the company’s stock.

“We’re very pleased with how we’re scaling our ads business,” Netflix Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann said July 18 during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “The revenue portion of ads is growing nicely.”

Streaming platforms are reshaping the advertising landscape, offering brands unprecedented opportunities for targeted marketing, PYMNTS reported in April.

Since Netflix’s foray into ad-supported plans, advertisers, eager to tap into the streaming giant’s vast user base, have invested in campaigns designed to resonate with viewers.

Viewers have remained engaged with these services as well. One-quarter of consumers say their spending on streaming services has been “indulgent,” according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and LendingClub collaboration, “New Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report: The Nonessential Spending Deep Dive Edition.”

That’s true of 29% of consumers living paycheck to paycheck with issues paying bills, 21% of those living paycheck to paycheck without issues paying bills, and 28% of those who don’t live paycheck to paycheck, according to the report.