The news: Amazon’s first-ever smart TVs, the Fire TV Omni Series, will propel the company to disruptor status in both the CTV and TV measurement spaces.
- Two models will be available in October: the Fire TV 4-Series beginning at $369.99, and the Fire TV Omni Series beginning at $409.99.
- The Fire TV Omni Series will connect to existing Amazon smart home technologies like Alexa and Ring, a major selling point for existing Amazon customers.
The CTV opportunity: Amazon’s Fire TV products have already made a mark in the CTV space, and CTV adoption as a whole is on the rise.
- Used by 85.5 million people in the US, we estimate, Fire TV is the No. 3 most-used CTV product behind general smart TVs and Roku. Connectivity with existing Amazon services and smart home products will help propel it to become an even larger player.
- CTVs aren’t the future anymore; they’re the norm. We estimate that 82.9% of US households will have a CTV in 2021, and 87.0% will own one by 2025.
- Amazon didn’t need to make actual TVs to compete with CTV manufacturers. We expect that Amazon’s Fire TV products will reach 30.3% of the US population—or 45.3% of all CTV users—by 2025.
But it’s not just about selling TV sets: Going beyond consumers, the opportunity in measurement is also significant.
The leg up for Amazon is exclusivity: Amazon is the gatekeeper to a city-sized walled garden of data that includes not just viewership metrics, but also online shopping habits, Alexa data, and more.
- By holding these insights close to its chest, Amazon can attract major advertising partners who will have exclusive access to a wealth of user data.
