Surely all those readers who have an older TV without Smart TV functionalities will be pulling right now, or will have done so at some point, a Google Chromecast or an Amazon Fire TV to enjoy their favorite streaming services on this screen. And without a doubt, these products are very attractive given their small and comfortable size, their more than affordable price and above all a totally non-existent learning curve to use them.
They seemed like the perfect stick to turn any monitor or television into a smart and connected screen, although all this has a counterpart in the form of monetization, since both Google and Amazon have been working for some time to place advertising in different formats that help them improve their financial results by keeping the price of the devices in very economical ranges.
We now know in fact, thanks to colleagues at Android Authority and other North American media such as 9to5Google, that the giant Amazon is testing new advertising formats within the Fire TV interface, some more intrusive than others but (almost) always just as annoying.
In this case, we’re talking about image-based ads that will be displayed in full screen for about 30 seconds, and that will grace the Fire TV experience just before the screen project starts. The format is not new as it had been tested in recent times in a limited way, although they had not dared to activate this type of ad in a generalized way at least to date.
Amazon seeks to monetize more and better the operation of Fire TV without increasing the price of its sticks, for which it is already testing new advertising formats including ads based on images before the screen saver.
We know that it is part of the new “Ambient Experience” that Amazon is implementing on Fire TV, and also that these banner ads in the form of an image will automatically show and disappear once the screen projector of the interface appears.
It may not be the most intrusive advertising format, as the protector activates after a time of inactivity and this implies that we are not watching content at least actively on the Fire TV Stick.
These new ads will be enabled on any Fire TV of any model manufactured from 2016 onwards, practically the entire device plant, so you can already get ready to see more advertising. In fact, curious case, if you use Amazon Prime on Fire TV you are likely to see twice as many ads now, first those on the Fire TV stick and then those on the streaming service itself.
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