IMDb, an Amazon subsidiary, is reportedly going to launch a free video streaming service later this week for Amazon Fire TV users. The report mentions that this service will be similar to The Roku Channel and will stream TV shows and movies for free. Viewers will obviously have to put up with ads which is how this service will make money and sustain itself.
The service will be completely free for all Fire TV users and won’t be exclusive to those with an Amazon Prime Video subscription. This is the second time we’re hearing about Amazon launching such a service through IMDb so there just might be truth to this.
The service will allow Amazon to capture advertising dollars from the lucrative TV advertising market that’s expected to generate up to $70 billion in revenue in the United States this year. Ads on the new service will appear between content while marketers will also be able to wrap ads around an embedded video player, an experience similar to what you already see on many websites.
Amazon will thus be able to grow its share of the digital advertising market that’s largely dominated by Google and Facebook. Amazon is currently the third-largest digital advertiser with 4 percent of the market. In comparison, both Google and Facebook account for over 57 percent of the market combined.
Amazon has not yet confirmed or denied this report. It’s expected to announce this service during Advertising Week in New York.
Filed in . Read more about Amazon and Entertainment. Source: cnbc