- Amazon is expected to announce a free, ad-supported video service on Fire TV which will feature libraries of past TV shows and movies, five people who have had talks with the company told CNBC.
- The offering, which is similar to The Roku Channel and Hulu, will let advertisers use Amazon’s first-party data and third-party consumer information to target advertising.
Amazon subsidiary IMDb is expected to announce this week a free, ad-supported video service for Amazon Fire TV users, according to several people with knowledge about the matter. The new service, which will be similar to The Roku Channel or some parts of Hulu, will feature TV shows and movies. It will be available to all Fire TV users, not just Amazon Prime Video users.
News of the video service was previously reported by The Information.
The move could help Amazon capture revenue from the lucrative TV advertising market, which is expected to generate almost $70 billion in revenue in the U.S. this year according to eMarketer. Advertising budgets for over-the-top services, where people can watch TV without a cable or satellite subscription, are only about $7 billion, according to Merkle. But the market is growing rapidly.
www.cnbc.com/2018/10/01/amazon-planning-new-free-video-service-compete-tv-dollars.html