If you own a Fire TV Stick or Fire-powered telly some changes could soon be arriving on the big screen. It seems Amazon is planning to revamp certain parts of its Fire OS homepage and search to introduce more adverts to the platform. That’s according to the latest report from Lowpass - a weekly newsletter about the future of entertainment.
It’s expected that Amazon will soon start "doubling down on TV and video advertising,” in a bid to boost revenues from its popular Fire devices.
During a recent chat with Lowpass' Janko Roettgers, Amazon’s director of Fire TV advertising, monetisation and engagement, Charlotte Maines, confirmed that adverts are a big part of the firm’s future plans. In fact, there are a trio of ways Amazon plans to target its Fire users including context-sensitive advertising which will show sponsored messages that match certain searches.
That basically means if you ask Alexa to find episodes of Breaking Bad, you may then see paid-for recommendations featuring actor Bob Odenkirk.
Another visual change will be much larger banner advertising which will run across the top of the homescreen. It’s thought companies will be able to buy a space on the landing page to advertise their latest and greatest products.
The final change will bring more context-sensitive adverts as you scroll through your TV catalogue.
Extra adverts are clearly good for businesses but consumers might not be so quite thrilled and it's something Amazon is clearly monitoring.
When asked about the impact on users and how some may be turned off by the idea, Maines said: "If you do not enjoy using your Fire TV, you will stop using it. Then I don’t have an opportunity for advertisers, because I don’t have a user.”
It's unclear when the changes will come into force but watch this space as your Fire TV Stick could soon look a little different.