Amazon is the latest of the big ad-supported streamers to lay claim to what it portrays as a growing audience — even though the numbers aren’t vetted by standard measurement services.
The digital giant said Tuesday that its Prime Video streaming service now reaches more than 315 million people around the world, compared with a figure of 200 million it disclosed in April of 2024. Amazon said the count was based on its own internal data over a period of 12 months, from September of last year through August of this year.
Amazon issues the number just days after Netflix made similar claims based on its own data, and not that of a widely accepted third-party measurement service. Netflix said it would switch to a count of “monthly active viewers,,” which it defines as “members who have watched at least one minute of ads on Netflix per month multiplied by the estimated average number of people within a household.”
Both Amazon and Netflix are striving to become more competitive with more traditional peers in the battle to win ad dollars from Madison Avenue. While there is no denying the companies’ power in terms of developing compelling content, both have considerably less experience than many traditional media conglomerates when it comes to ad sales. Netflix has been racing to build line-ups of live specials and sports when the bulk of its offering comes from scripted drama, comedy and movies — the type of stuff that viewers tend to stream on their own, at moments of their own choosing, rather than together, which is still what many advertisers crave.
Amazon said its figure represents “an unduplicated average monthly active ad-supported audience across both its original and licensed content, live sports and events and FAST channels on Prime Video. “This expanded audience across 16 countries demonstrates our customer-obsessed approach to enhancing the viewing experience while delivering powerful opportunities for brands,” said Jeremy Helfand, vice president, Prime Video Advertising. “We’re just beginning to unlock what’s possible when premium entertainment, engaged viewers, and innovative ad-tech converge with relevant and performant advertising at this unprecedented scale.”
The only people who need to accept Amazon’s tabulation, of course, are its advertisers and their media-buying proxies.
From Variety US
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
