Amazon Prime Video Ads Will Now Run During Pause Screens

It has just been four months since Amazon started running ads in its Prime Video streaming service, but the retail giant is already bringing another promotional tactic, which could be more annoying for users. The new strategy will involve displaying ads whenever someone hits the pause button.

Recently, the company announced it will be introducing three new ad formats for Prime Video later this year to lure users into buying promoted items while consuming content. Shoppable carousels will soon be seen during ad breaks in shows and movies so viewers can see a “sliding lineup” of products can buy on Amazon. This eventually makes this an ad within an ad, and it even “automatically pauses” if users interact with it to give viewers time to browse.

Not just that, movies, TV shows, and live sports will also show interactive brand trivia ads that will provide rewards “like Amazon shopping credits” and pause ads that offer a translucent overlay, enabling users to directly add the promoted product to their Amazon shopping cart.

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Amazon Wants To Go Beyond Traditional Advertisements

Amazon says this ad overlay will only show up if the video is paused but the company notes that pause ads “extend the engagement opportunity beyond a traditional ad break.”

A similar pause-activated advertising feature was seen on Hulu back in 2019, which is now making its way to other streaming platforms like YouTube. Amazon hasn’t specified when the new ad formats will be rolled out, only that they’ll be available “in the upcoming broadcast year.”

Prime Video users who wish to have an ad-free experience will have to shell out an additional $2.99 per month on top of their existing subscription, but a lot of people aren’t willing to do so. 

The company says its cheaper ad-supported tier has an average monthly reach of more than 200 million global customers. Amazon hasn’t disclosed how many Prime Video users it has, but it had 200 million global subscribers across its Prime membership program in 2021.

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Amazon Music Gets Gen AI-Powered Playlist Feature

Amazon Music will soon be bringing a feature many users might already have seen on Spotify. The service be offering a gen AI-powered playlist feature. As of now, the feature called Maestro is available to select iOS and Android Amazon Music users through the beta program. As of now, the feature has been rolled out to select users in the US.

People who use the beta version of the app will be able to see the new feature on the home screen. Users can also access the tool by tapping the plus button to create a new playlist.