Amazon’s Prime Video Adds More Ads On Third Party TVs
Amazon is introducing a new advertising strategy to its Prime Video streaming service, incorporating rotating ads on the profile selection screen of its connected TV app. This move aims to increase ad revenue and further monetize its vast user base.
These new rotating ads have slowly been rolling out but now seem to be live on more TVs.
#amazon #amazonprime #television #entertainment #advertising #streaming
New Ad Placement:
The redesigned profile selection page now features prominent advertising space, displaying full-screen visuals that rotate every eight seconds. These ads will cycle through a carousel of content, creating a dynamic and attention-grabbing experience for users.
Amazon’s Description:
Amazon describes the new ad format as follows: “When a customer opens the Prime Video app on third-party Connected TVs, they begin with the Profile Selection screen. This screen acts as a prominent advertising space, occupying the full screen with visuals that oscillate from left to right and vice versa in a recurring pattern for each advertisement slot. Profile page ads will auto-rotate through a carousel of content slots every eight seconds.”
Industry Trends:
Amazon’s decision to introduce ads on its Prime Video platform reflects a growing trend in the streaming industry. As competition intensifies and the costs of content acquisition and production rise, streaming services are seeking new ways to monetize their services.
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Walmart is Closing The Gap With Amazon Prime
One of the hottest fights happening right now is the fight between Walmat+ and Amazon Prime. Now it appears Walmart is closing the gap with Amazon Prime at least when it comes to some of the profitable customers.
According to Bloomberg, 28% of American households that make over $150,000 a year now subscribe to Walmart+, up from just 13% one year ago. Well, this is closing the gap with Amazon Prime Walmart still has a long way to go.
#walmart #amazon #amazonprime #retail
Right now, when looking at American households who make at least $150,000 a year, 77% of them subscribe to Amazon Prime. That is up from 70% one year ago.
So far, it seems that Walmart is not stealing away customers from Amazon, but increasingly, Walmart+ is a second service that Americans are paying for alongside Amazon Prime.
Millions of Americans may be returning to in-person activities, but it seems clear that many still enjoy the ease of having everything delivered right t their house.
Walmart’s big selling point right now is the ability to get items now. Walmart has a store located within 10 miles of 90% of Americans. Amazon has been pushing its ability to have almost everything you may want increasingly though Walmart’s growth has attracted more sellers to its website, helping it compete with Amazon.
Right now, Amazon still holds a strong lead as the largest online retailer in the United States. Walmart, though is now firmly secured itself as the second largest retailer in the United States with plans to become the largest.
Parks: 71% Of Amazon Prime Members Watch Prime Video
Amazon Prime has become a household essential, with Parks Associates estimating 77.3 million households held a membership in Q1 2021. Of those, 71% take advantage of Amazon’s streaming service that comes with a membership, Prime Video.
According to new research, Parks also estimates that Amazon Prime Video has a 45% penetration rate of internet households in the U.S. as of the third quarter of 2021.
#amazon #amazonprimevideo #internet
Prime Video is considered to be one of the Big Four quintessential streaming services alongside Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+, and although it has recently upped its subscription cost, it’s also increasing its consumer value with new content like the highly anticipated (and expensive) Lord of the Rings series set to premiere this fall.
Amazon has raised its annual Prime Membership prices four times, starting out at just $79 in 2005 and recently raising to $139 as of this year.
Prime Memberships aren’t the only thing that have increased. Hulu increased its price last year and Netflix subscription costs went up at the beginning of 2022. Disney+ hasn’t seen a price hike…yet. But the service is still pretty new and subscription cost fluctuations will become inevitable at some point.
“With inflation and the cost of content on the rise, we will likely see more providers start to slowly raise their subscription prices, trying to find that balance between revenue growth and consumer value,” said Eric Sorensen, Senior Contributing Analyst, Parks Associates.
Amazon Prime Video is the Fastest-Growing Streaming Service in the UK
Amazon’s streaming platform Prime Video is on a roll in the UK. In fact, Prime Video is the fastest-growing streaming service in the UK according to new research by Kantar.
The data shows that Prime Video gained about 700k new subscribers between October-December 2021, making up about 45% of all new subscribers during that timeframe. On the other hand, Netflix added just 70k new subscribers in that period.
#amazonprimevideo #streaming #entertainment #uk
If Prime Video’s growth pattern continues on track, the service will take over Netflix as the number one streaming service in the UK by 2024.
Meanwhile, Disney+ currently in second place in terms of growth. The service added about 19.3% of all new subscribers, which is around 280,000 new subscribers in the final three months of 2021. Recently, Disney+ has been pushing marketing in the UK to promote the service as more than just kids content, promoting shows like The Walking Dead, and Pam and Tommy.
Like every time we mention subscriber numbers, It is important to remember that Prime Video is included with a an Amazon Prime Membership, so not everyone is actually watching the content on the service. Netflix still remains the platform with the most engaged viewers.
In the UK, Prime Video costs £5.99 a month as a stand-alone service, and £7.99 a month or £79 a year for full Prime benefits including one-day delivery and music streaming.
Amazon Prime Video Gets Streaming Rights to Final ‘Evangelion’ Film
The final chapter in the Japanese anime film series Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time will stream on Amazon Prime Video in over 240 countries, beginning August 13.
#amazonprimevideo #evangelion #film #entertainment
Amazon has worldwide streaming rights to the film, outside of Japan. The film premiered in theaters in Japan in March and has been seen by over 6 million viewers since then. Along with Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time, the first three films will stream on Prime Video, including Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone, Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance, and Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo.
Anime News Network describes the final film in the series as part of a full review.
In the aftermath of the Fourth Impact, stranded without their Evangelions, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei find refuge in one of the rare pockets of humanity that still exist on the ruined planet Earth. There, each of them live a life far different from their days as an Evangelion pilot. However, the danger to the world is far from over. A new impact is looming on the horizon—one that will prove to be the true end of Evangelion.
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time
In the aftermath of the Fourth Impact, stranded without their Evangelions, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei find refuge in one of the rare pockets of humanity that still exist on the ruined planet Earth. There, each of them live a life far different from their days as an Evangelion pilot. However, the danger to the world is far from over. A new impact is looming on the horizon—one that will prove to be the true end of Evangelion.
#evangelion #scifi
It's been 14 years since the first Rebuild of Evangelion film hit Japanese theaters—and a staggering 9 years since the previous film, You Can (Not) Redo was released. As the final film of the four-part alternate retelling of one of the most pivotal and beloved anime of all time, it's hard to understate the hype surrounding Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time both inside and outside of Japan. While this review will be spoiler-free (beyond explaining the basic setup for the film), if you're wanting to go in as blind as possible, here's your one-sentence review from one diehard Evangelion fan to another: If this is the final Evangelion anime ever produced, I am content with how it ended.
The first quarter of the 2-hour and 35-minute film is spent dealing with the fallout of the previous film. Shinji is just this side of catatonic: with his best friend killed violently before his eyes and everything he thought he knew turned upside down, it's no wonder he thinks that his every action just makes things worse.
Yet while Shinji is dealing with his most recent trauma, Rei begins to learn about life outside of Nerv. With a sense of child-like wonder, she starts the journey to becoming her own person—not just another “Rei Ayanami.”
In contrast to the other two, Asuka's story is much more nuanced and exists mainly in the background. Through visual storytelling, it becomes clear that a lot has happened to her in the last 14 years. She already knows her place in the world—even if she dreams of a different one.
In broader strokes, this first part of the movie is about the three Eva pilots learning what life can be like when your existence isn't defined by being an Eva pilot—and in doing so, reaffirming why it's important that they pilot anyway.
While all this characterization is going on, we also get a lot of the explanation left out in the previous film: namely what exactly happened over the past 14 years, what the state of the world currently is, and what the goals of Wille and Nerv are. It's refreshing to finally get a clearer picture of the events of You Can (Not) Redo, even if it took a nine-year wait.
But perhaps the most important element of the film is its additional focus on Gendo. As the main villain of the original, he was rather one-note in his motivations. Thrice Upon a Time makes great strides in expanding and developing his character. Not only do we get a deeper look at his motivations, we learn why he is the way he is: what kind of life and personality are needed to make him do all the horrible things he's done. And even if you still hate Gendo by the end of this exploration, it's hard not to empathize with him.
The film also does a great job of playing on viewer expectations. Because the Rebuild films are based on the original TV show and follow the same characters, it's natural to assume that things revealed in one remain true in the other. However, as one big twist in the film reveals to great success, this is not necessarily the case.
On both a narrative and a thematic level, Thrice Upon a Time is most deeply connected with the 1997 film The End of Evangelion. However, the messages of the two films couldn't be more different. The End of Evangelion (and the TV series before it) is mostly concerned with the hedgehog's dilemma: the closer your relationship with others, the more they can hurt you. In the end, that film concludes that it is better to exist alongside people you cherish, despite the emotional pain that you will undoubtedly go through.
Thrice Upon a Time, on the other hand, throws the entire dilemma out the window. It posits that you shouldn't focus on what you seek to gain from a relationship, but rather what you give to it. If you selflessly love those you care about—do what you can to make them happy with nothing expected in return—then you'll never be alone. You will be able to find your own happiness with those who do the same for you. It's a far more optimistic lesson, and one that rings true in the film's final moments.
However, as strong as the film is overall, it isn't without its drawbacks. Mari draws the short stick when it comes to character development for the pilots—which is odd considering how vital she is to the overall story and its resolution. While nearly every action scene in the film centers around her, she gets no real character arc and the specifics of her past remain shrouded in mystery.
There are also problems with the world-building. Nerv, as we see it in this film and the previous one, is comprised solely of two humans and a handful of Rei clones. Yet, they are able to field everything from flying battleships to hundreds of Evangelions. Who designed and programmed these new units? How are they created? How are the raw materials obtained? The logistics behind what we see on screen must be staggering in their complexity, to the point of stretching the realm of believability.
Then there's the technology used by both sides, which might as well be magic in this film. The sci-fi rules established in previous films are largely ignored to the point that it's hard to know how much danger our heroes are in. We don't know the limits of what they can do—or what the enemy can do for that matter. This only gets worse thanks to all the new technobabble being thrown around (so much so that those watching the film in theaters are handed a literal list of all the new terms upon entering). As a result, this confusion unnecessarily diminishes the tension in any given scene.
Musically, Thrice Upon a Time is pretty much what you've come to expect from the Rebuild films: some tracks from the original TV series, some new songs to set the mood in key scenes, some repurposed classical music tracks, and a Hikaru Utada song or two to finish things off. Of course, just because it's a predictable collection, that doesn't mean you won't be humming “One More Kiss” for weeks to come.
On the visual side of things, Thrice Upon a Time presents some of the most fluid and dynamic 3D animation I've ever seen, though the transition between 2D and 3D is still noticeable. It also uses some live-action rotoscope to purposefully create an unsettling clash of animation styles, adding a bit of nightmare fuel to the film that will haunt viewers for years to come.
But the biggest issue visually is how chaotic and cluttered the action scenes are. With all the spinning, moving, shaky cams, and uniformly red backgrounds, it can be hard to tell which way is up, much less what's going on. Even the film's establishing shots do little once the surroundings become so surreal we have no baseline to compare them to.
All in all, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time is an excellent mix of new and old. It uses the same building blocks from decades before to create a new story with a more hopeful message. Characters are explored in interesting, dynamic ways and the film ties up the vast majority of loose ends that the previous films have left hanging. And while it does have some weaknesses in its world-building, you're likely to be so caught up in the adventure that you barely notice your first time through, or are willing to overlook them in the face of everything else it does well.
Thrice Upon a Time bills itself as not only the end of the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy but the end of the entire Evangelion franchise. And, if nothing else, it certainly delivers a satisfying conclusion.
Chief Director: Hideaki Anno
Director:
Mahiro Maeda
Katsuichi Nakayama
Kazuya Tsurumaki
Screenplay: Hideaki Anno
Storyboard:
Hideaki Anno
Mahiro Maeda
Kazuya Tsurumaki
Music: Shirō Sagisu
Original creator: Hideaki Anno
Original Character Design:
Takeshi Honda
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Character Design: