Amazon is adding yet another advert format to its popular Fire TV streaming devices, in the form of a “Welcome Screen” ad that will run for 7 seconds before the app is even loaded.
The first (and only, for now) app to get this new type of advert format is Amazon’s own Freevee – the free streaming service that already relies on advert breaks.
As we recently reported, Freevee’s been getting new apps for iOS and for Android TVs and mobile recently, expanding its audience.
But the Welcome Screen adverts will be unique to Amazon’s Fire TV devices, at least at first.
The new ad format was presented to advertisers on Amazon’s ads hub, and was first reported by AFTV News. It’s currently in a closed beta, with a wider release expected later this year (in the US, at least – we don’t know about the product’s UK implementation yet).
Amazon’s line of Fire TV sticks is quite popular around the world and in the UK. One of the criticisms often heard against the Fire TV, is that its home screen is sometimes cluttered with banner ads, adverts and sponsored titles.
The “Freevee Welcome Screen” will not add to the Fire TV’s clutter, but will certainly delay your watching, in a more sophisticated form of a pre-roll ad.
According to Amazon, the Freevee Welcome Screen “provides a full-screen, seven-second experience when they launch the Freevee app on Fire TV.
“A brand’s custom creative replaces the standard loading screen that customers see, up to once a day, seven times in a month.”
Amazon published a video that shows the implementation of the welcome screen on a Fire TV:
As mentioned, this new Welcome Screen will only be added to Amazon’s Freevee app at this point.
Freevee was originally known as IMDbTV, and it turned into Freevee last April. Freevee features TV shows and films from a variety of studios and production companies, as well as original productions.
Everything is free to watch – but with advert breaks. Unlike many other free streaming services, Amazon’s Freevee features premium originals, including the recently launched crime drama Bosch: Legacy, which is a spinoff series to Prime Video’s Bosch.
The service also features an extensive and frequently updated library of hit movies and television including popular favourites such as Les Misérables, Babylon 5, The Breakfast Club, Person of Interest and Without a Trace.
Freevee’s content in the US is not identical to the lineup we get in the UK – and the adverts are also local, of course.
Therefore, it’s possible we won’t see the new ad format in the UK at the same time it launches in the US.
However, this may also be a sign of things to come, when more apps possibly get the ‘Welcome Screen Ad’ treatment in the future.