Last night’s Chiefs/Chargers game was on Amazon Prime, and a lot of people pointed out the following:

Yes, this does seem counterintuitive. It would be like watching Peacock, and they are asking people to sign up for Peacock when you’re already subscribed.

My first thought was that this was targeted at people watching at a bar, on someone else’s account, via free trial, or perhaps an illegal stream. They really focused on that group of potential customers, i.e. people who found their way to the broadcast but weren’t yet subscribers. In that sense, I guess it would be more than reasonable to try to promote the product in an effort to add those customers, even if it was redundant to show ads to current subscribers.

Some people pointed out that you’ll see ads for TV shows on cable, but that’s not really the same thing here. For instance, if CBS shows a promo for Blue Bloods or whatever, they want you to watch that show in its specific time slot. They aren’t trying to get you to purchase a cable subscription, so that’s the nuance here that makes the comparison fall flat.

Keep in mind, Amazon signed a $13 billion dollar deal that takes them to 2033 with the NFL. They are paying about one billion a year to broadcast 15 games. That’s a shit ton of money, and so you’d think they’d try to maximize their inventory with as many external, non-promo ads as possible. Sometimes when local broadcasters can’t fill up their available slots, they stuff promos in there instead, but it’s not that common. Amazon is also in an arms race with ESPN/Disney/Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, etc – all of these ala carte streaming services that each have exclusive rights for various products, like the Premier League, college football, etc. The streaming world is super competitive now, there’s a lot of money in it, and they gotta get people to sign up, hence the ads you saw last night.