Prime Video uses sports to sell more ads
Amazon Prime Video is expanding its advertising efforts by leveraging its growing portfolio of live sports rights, including the NFL's Thursday Night Football, NBA, WNBA, and NASCAR. The platform aims to create "event-type moments" that combine live sports with entertainment content, particularly around key dates like Black Friday, with the goal of attracting advertisers by offering a younger audience demographic compared to linear TV.
Key Takeaways
- Amazon reported $17.1 billion in Q1 advertising revenue and $70 billion over the trailing twelve months, according to CEO Andy Jassy.
- Prime Video now carries NFL Thursday Night Football, NASCAR, the NBA, the WNBA, Duke games, and New York Yankees deals across the calendar.
- Tanner Elton said TNF skews seven years younger than linear TV, the NBA nine years younger, and NASCAR five years younger.
- Amazon plans to build "event-type moments" around Thanksgiving week, including Duke vs. UConn, a John Madden biopic on Thanksgiving, and a Black Friday slate with NBA and NFL games.
- Elton said Amazon has already sold out WNBA inventory for this season and expects more shoulder content around women's sports on Prime Video and Twitch.
Why It Matters
Amazon is using live sports to make Prime Video a higher-value ad product, not just a streaming destination. The immediate payoff is clearer packaging for advertisers: premium sports, entertainment releases, and shopping-adjacent moments like Black Friday. The broader angle is that Prime Video is now being pitched against broadcast-level inventory, with younger audiences than linear TV across TNF, NBA, and NASCAR. What to watch next is how much of the Thanksgiving and Black Friday bundle Amazon can sell around Duke vs. UConn, the Madden film, and its NBA/NFL games.
Read full article at hollywoodreporter.com
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