Amazon pulled out all the stops for its second annual upfront week presentation today at The Beacon Theatre in New York City.
Actors and sports stars, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Momoa, Travis Kelce, Candace Parker, Jamie Lee Curtis, Elizabeth Banks, Octavia Spencer, Michael B. Jordan, John Cena, and Walton Goggins, graced the stage, while Steve Aoki and Lizzo performed for guests upon arrival.
Among many announcements made throughout the evening, post-apocalyptic series Fallout will get a third season, the Academy of Country Music Awards will be streamed on Prime Video for the next three years, and Marvel series Spider-Noir starring Nicolas Cage is coming in 2026.
In the 90-minute-long sales pitch, Amazon argued that advertisers needn’t spend money anywhere but through its variety of platforms. With over 220 million Amazon Prime users globally—around 180 million of which reside in the U.S.—the company’s consumer data remains unmatched, and so far, the pitch is working. Amazon made $13.9 billion last quarter on advertising alone, an 18% increase from Q1 of 2024.
Its ecommerce prowess, combined with an increasingly competitive slate of TV series and movies on Prime Video, a growing collection of popular podcasts produced and published by Wondery, adtech tools, web services, and gamer-focused streaming platform Twitch, all come together to make a compelling case. Amazon has an average monthly ad-supported audience of over 300 million across its platforms, Tanner Elton, vice president of U.S. ad sales at Amazon, said from the stage.
“Our engagement increased nearly 40% in monthly ad-supported viewing hours [over the last year],” Elton said. “We know what they love to watch, which is very important, but we also know what they buy: 88% of these customers shop on Amazon, which means a product they saw on Cross, which is one of my favorite shows in the evening, can be in their home the very next day.”
Fallout gets a third season
Actors Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, and Walton Goggins took the stage during Amazon’s upfront presentation to announce that Fallout, a post-nuclear apocalypse series set in the fictional wasteland city of New Vegas, is renewed for a third season. The first season was released in April 2024, and the second season premieres in December.
