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Amazon Thinks It’s Prime Time For Ads; Will Brands Tune In?

6 0
06.06.2025

Everything and everyone around us, even remotely related to the internet, is evolving, and global tech giants are no exception. While Indian businesses have long replicated the strategies of international behemoths, the tables are turning. What makes us say so?

Well, after championing an ad-free, premium viewing experience for years, Amazon’s OTT platform Prime Video has now introduced ads to its platform in India — a move that the homegrown TV broadcaster-led OTT platforms have hardly distanced themselves from ever. A prime (no pun here) example is Hotstar (now JioCinema), which has always run advertisements and never relied solely on a pure-play subscription model.

While Amazon Prime Video previously allowed skippable ads, users will now have to watch “minimal ads” that cannot be skipped.

Although this evolution is new in the Indian market, it was not unexpected. In January 2024, Amazon began rolling out ads on Prime Video in the US, with a promise of showing fewer ads than TV and other streaming services. They were also given an option to pay more to skip watching ads completely.

The streaming giant is now trying to replicate this in India, starting June 17, 2025. It has informed its users in the country that they will have to cough up an additional fee on top of the standard Prime membership charges for an ad-free experience. Starting June 17th, Amazon plans to charge an additional INR 129 per month or INR 699 per year for an ad-free experience.

However, what stands out as a sore thumb is that the move is the complete opposite of what these international OTT giants stood for — no ads, no reruns, and everything available on-demand.

Now, the question arises: If Amazon eventually had to do it the Indian OTT way, then why the delay?

A former employee of Amazon Prime Video told Inc42 that none of the global streaming giants, including Netflix, has been able to recognise the importance of the ad-supported video on demand (AVoD) model.

“…because strategic decisions were always........

© Inc42