Amazon Earnings: Movies And Animation Powering Prime Video Growth

Friday, 7 February 2025, 8:06 am
Press Release: Parrot Analytics

Oh, to be a tech giant with virtually unlimited resources and a long runway with which to tweak, mold and evolve a streaming product that isn’t remotely core to the central business. That’s the position Amazon is in right now.

No, the world’s largest online retailer doesn’t want to light billions of dollars on fire every year via streaming just because product sales is its core money maker. But there’s no doubt that Prime Video has been able to develop at its own pace thanks to Amazon’s safety net of toilet paper and grocery sales. Now, the company is starting to see some real returns for its patient entertainment efforts.

Prime Video Subscriber Revenue

• From Q1 2024-Q3 2024, Prime Video added 4.44 million subscribers to bring its global total up to 217.36 million, according to Parrot Analytics Streaming Economics data, second only to Netflix.
• Most importantly, Prime Video transitioned its entire subscriber base in five key markets to an opt-out ad-supported tier with negligible effects on churn rates. The move was so successful that Amazon is rolling it out in at least five additional markets this year.
• The ancillary benefit here was that it forced Netflix to lower advertising costs to keep up. The primary benefit, however, is a surge in platform revenue. Parrot Analytics measured $8.89 billion in Prime Video subscriber revenue generation through the first three quarters of 2024, a 26% increase compared to the same span in 2023. Prime Video’s subscriber revenue represented 1.9% of Amazon’s total revenue in Q3 2024.

Prime Video — Streaming Home for Movies?

• When looking at total on platform catalog demand, which measures both original and licensed films and TV series, Amazon managed to leapfrog Max and Hulu for second place in the US last year, according to Parrot Analytics.
• One of the main engines behind this growth was the jump in demand share for Prime Video’s movie catalog (6.8% to 10.7%), which overtook Netflix to become the most in-demand movie library in the U.S.
• Already the largest SVOD movie catalog domestically, Amazon grew its film library by a whopping 71.7% throughout 2024. For comparison, Peacock enjoyed the second-largest increase in movie library volume last year at 17.8%.
• Overall, movies are integral to Amazon Prime Video's strategy. Over the first three quarters of 2024, films generated 36.3% of the platform's measured streaming subscriber revenue in that span, according to Parrot Analytics Streaming Economics. This US market share is second only to Peacock’s during that interval.

Invincible Season 3

The third season of the popular animated superhero series Invincible will premiere on Prime Video February 6. As a mature animated superhero series, Invincible has a more targeted and focused appeal than a four-quadrant family friendly offering.

Importantly, Invincible is a foundational building block of Amazon’s original brand identity as adult-skewing animation (The Legend of Vox Machina, Hazbin Hotel, Secret Level, etc) carves out a significant niche within the streamer’s library.

Where Is Invincible Contributing The Most Value?

• Key Performance Insights:
• Functions primarily as a retention driver rather than acquisition tool, reflecting the high genre affinity of superhero content.
• Strongest performance in UCAN markets, where it drives the highest ARPU.
• Shows significant growth in EMEA, helping drive e-commerce penetration in growth markets.
• Top markets: US, Canada, Australia, Russia, Brazil, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Sweden, UK, and New Zealand.
• Performance Metrics:
• Q2 2021 (Series Premiere): Led UCAN with 3.5% of acquisitions and 3.4% of retention.
• Q4 2023 (Season 2): Improved to 4.1% of acquisitions and 5.4% of retention in UCAN, ranking second in both metrics.
• Consistently strongest in UCAN and EMEA regions.

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Parrot Analytics

Global television demand measurement

Parrot Analytics is the leading global content demand analytics company for the multi-platform TV business. With the world's largest TV audience demand datasets, the company currently tracks more than 1.5B daily expressions of demand in over 100 languages from 200+ countries to reveal the content consumers engage with and watch the most across platforms.

As a trusted partner to some of the biggest media companies and content creators in the world, Parrot Analytics optimises content workflows in real time. The company's TV analytics products result in better production, distribution, acquisition and marketing decisions, as well as accelerated SVOD platform success.

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