• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

With industry estimates projecting Amazon Prime Video will total $1.7 billion advertising revenue this year, the premium streaming service now says engagement -- in terms of monthly viewing hours -- is also surging, rising 40%.

Speaking at Prime Video’s upfront presentation on Monday, Tanner Elton, vice president of U.S. advertising sales for Amazon, added that the viewer-consumer connection from the year-old advertising option, which started up over a year ago on Prime Video, to the e-commerce Amazon business has been a “game changer.”

“We know what [viewers] love to watch, which is very important. But we also know what they buy,” said Elton, adding that 88% of these customers shop on Amazon.

“[That ] means a product they saw on 'Cross' [on Prime Video] in the evening can be in their home the very next day. That is full-funnel advertising.”

Compared to a year also -- with the rise of Prime Video as well as other businesses -- Amazon says the average daily audience across all its owned-and-operated platforms has risen to 300 million from 275 million users.

The advertising tier of Prime Video now reaches more than 130 million U.S. customers -- up from 115 million a year ago.

Prime Video is now making the consumer experience with its advertising even better, Elton says -- adding real store information such as pricing, reviews, deals, and interactive ads, where consumers can engage immediately with a click of the remote.