Amazon is working to diversify its streaming platform, adding content in some countries where soccer is widely watched with events such as the live English Premier League broadcast in the UK. Now, Amazon prepares a new free ad-based service called Amazon Free Dive.
Free Dive would be the upcoming free but ad-based video service from Amazon
The new Amazon Free Dive service would be available exclusively to those who have a Fire TV device at home. Free Dive would look slightly like Roku Channel, which is also a free, ad-based video platform. These types of channels usually broadcast old content, but have the advantage of being free.
There are currently about 48 million Fire TV devices in the world, including the company’s HDMI stick or 4K compatible dongle, and Fire Cube with Alexa. With the new free service, Amazon seeks to take a share of the traditional ad-based television market, thus diversifying its streaming service and attracting new customers, as well.
Free Dive would have no relation with Amazon Prime Video and would be an app where the user could choose from the available content in exchange for viewing ads. So, Amazon would be working to get licenses for old TV series from big studios, which are cheaper and still very much in demand today, such as Friends, for example.
Amazon plans on placing more ads on all its platforms
The new Amazon Free Dive service is being developed in collaboration with IMDb, a subsidiary of Amazon. What Amazon plans on making its platforms more profitable, as it has already done with IMDb by adding ads.
With its new, free, and ads-based video platform, the Amazon Free Dive, the company intends to increase its revenue, besides adding commercials in its sports broadcasts, including the English Premier League (soccer) in the UK and NFL in the US.
Such measures could lead the company to become the second U.S. company to exceed $1 trillion in market capitalization after Apple did so a month ago. In the last quarter, Amazon grew 132% more to $2.2 billion in the ad segment, and it doesn’t seem to want to stay there.
