Amazon’s second Upfront presentation featured a lineup of Hollywood celebrities including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Momoa and Jamie Lee Curtis joined by sports stars such as Travis Kelce and John Cena. The streamer announced that “Spider-Noir,” the Marvel series starring Nicolas Cage, debuts on Prime Video next year, while the post-apocalyptic drama “Fallout” returns for a third season. The Academy of Country Music Awards will call Prime Video home for the next three years. The ad-supported version of the streaming service has added 15 million monthly customers since January 2024 and now reaches about 130 million U.S. households monthly.

Amazon Prime Video with ads comes with no extra fee as part of the e-commerce giant’s $15 monthly/$140 per year Prime delivery plan. Amazon offers an ad-free version for an additional $3 per month. Amazon says it is “uniquely positioned to connect content to customers,” with an average of 88 percent of U.S. Prime Video viewers also shopping on Amazon.com, per Los Angeles Times.

Viewer engagement has increased to “37 percent in monthly viewing hours,” which means “a product they see during ‘Cross’ could be in their cart before the ad ends and on their doorstep the next day,” the company said in an Upfronts recap.

“Our ad formats are proven to drive measurable action on and off Amazon,” LA Times quotes Amazon Ads VP Global Sales Alan Moss saying, writing that “some of its new ad formats include artificial intelligence-generated ad messaging, where AI is used to analyze what a customer is viewing and surfaces relevant ads when they pause a program.”

During Amazon’s “90-minute-long sales pitch” at New York’s Beacon Theatre, Amazon ad execs made the case that “advertisers needn’t spend money anywhere but through its variety of platforms,” Adweek notes, underscoring that with roughly 220 million Amazon Prime users globally “the company’s consumer data remains unmatched, and so far, the pitch is working: Amazon made $13.9 billion last quarter on advertising alone, an 18 percent increase from Q1 of 2024.”

Variety called Amazon’s “second formal” Upfronts appearance Monday a “strong return” that opened with “world famous DJ Steve Aoki … blasting beats on behalf of Twitch,” which Amazon owns.

Amazon compiled its “21 biggest series, films, and sports events coming in 2025 and 2026” in a press release and provided breakout announcements for “Spider-Noir” and the National Women’s Soccer League, back for a second season, joining the NBA and NFL among the platform’s growing sports portfolio.

Related:
Amazon Unveils AI-Powered ‘Pause’ Ads, Do More Than Just Run Commercials, MediaPost, 5/13/25
Amazon Drops 3 New CTV Ad Formats Ahead of Its Upfront Presentation, Adweek, 5/12/25