You May Be Helping Amazon Prime Video In Ways You Didn't Realize

I’m going to be honest and admit that whenever a streamer is available as an add-on channel through Prime, that’s how I subscribe to it — Peacock, Apple TV, PBS Masterpiece, MGM+, Paramount+, and HBO Max. Basically, everything except Disney/Hulu and Netflix (and if they were available there, I’d probably add them). It’s just easier, notwithstanding the recurring Peacock glitches (seriously, why is St. Denis Medical available next day some weeks and not until the following week on others?). I also like having everything in one place under one bill, and it’s simpler for the family to remember one password instead of ten.

This may seem like a hill of beans in the grand scheme, since all the streamers are owned by giant corporations, but what I didn’t realize until reading a Julia Alexander piece in Puck today is just how much this setup benefits Prime Video. As it turns out, when Nielsen tracks viewing on streamers — say, St. Denis Medical on Peacock watched through a Prime Video add-on — both Peacock and Amazon get credit for that viewing.

But not only that: Amazon apparently gets 30 percent of the subscription revenue and, in many cases, a cut of the ad inventory, too. So by subscribing to PBS Masterpiece, I’m actually giving 30 percent of that revenue to Amazon. Ack.

The flipside is that anyone who subscribes to PBS Masterpiece is giving 30 percent to Prime Video because 100 percent of PBS Masterpiece subscriptions come through Amazon. The numbers for other services are eye-opening, too: 68 percent of Acorn subs come through Amazon, and 30 percent of Paramount+ subs do as well. Apple TV has increased its subs by nearly 10 percent since being added to Prime Video, and Prime Video handles all the tech costs while surfacing shows viewers might not otherwise find.

It’s also just plain easier to access everything on one platform, where you can skim through the most-watched shows on each channel or even across all the Prime Video add-ons. It’s convenient, Prime Video will bundle several of them at discounted rates (Starz/Britbox/AMC), and how else would I have discovered Shakespeare and Hathaway? The downside, alas, is that it means funneling even more money into Amazon’s coffers.

But seriously: Give me my St. Denis Medical episode now, damnit.