• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 21, 2024

Do we get a clearer picture -- of what Prime Video is and is not -- when it comes to subscriber scale versus other streaming services?

Amazon says Prime Video is the largest U.S. ad-supported streaming service -- with 115 million subscribers. Earlier this year, Prime Video announced it would be starting up an advertising-supported option of its streaming service.

That means Prime Video is higher than Netflix, for example -- for all its subscriber options (including non-ad-supported tiers).

At last reading, Netflix said it was at 82.7 million for its second-quarter reporting period, while Disney+ came in at 46.1 million.

Globally, Prime Video would still be behind some other companies for its advertising option versus other broader subscriber counts, claiming 200 million subscribers worldwide. That is lower than the nearly 270 million for Netflix and the 154 million for Disney+.

One important note: On the flip side, Netflix is now moving in the other direction -- it will no longer report membership numbers starting next year.

Greg Peters, co-CEO of Netflix, says of the move: “We’ve evolved.” Some may say something else -- that by doing this they will have “devolved.”

The term "walled gardens" gets tossed around a lot in the media and among digital-minded companies everywhere. So is Netflix now building a bigger wall? 

To an extent, this is attributable to a growing advertiser option/tier for consumers to consider. Advertising data, in particular, has been linked to digital media “walled garden” ever bigger fences.

But Prime Video lags behind when it comes to some specific programming viewing data that Netflix does offer.  

Netflix has been regularly offering program data from its internal servers. This include a weekly reading of its TV series and films -- globally and in the U.S. --in terms of hours viewed, views, and runtime. 

Some analysts believed a maturer streaming/CTV marketplace will put more pressure of offering transparency to see around, under, or some peep holes in those gardens. 

But others believe stronger players that survive will continue to have a leg up. Offering more data -- and granular data, at that -- will be a longer term pursuit.