Canadian Ad Insider

The event kicked off with a live performance from Amazon Music's breakthrough artist, followed by a presentation from various members of the Amazon Canada team.

Discover the Magic of Prime Video's Reach and Scale

With hit shows and movies ranging from The Idea of You, The Summer I Turned Pretty, Reacher, Fallout, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and more, Prime Video has established itself as a premier entertainment destination with an ad-supported reach of 115 million in the U.S. Prime Video offers hit movies, great series, award-winning Amazon Originals, and the best in live sports, all in a single destination, available through one application across thousands of devices.

Amazon said it will continue to invest in premium programming, which will help provide advertisers the opportunity to deepen their relationships with viewers. Along with the original series and films from Amazon MGM Studios that audiences love, Prime Video offers sought-after licensed series and movies across every genre, more than 500 free ad-supported channels, live events like the Academy of Country Music Awards, and, of course, an ever-expanding offering of live sports.

Amazon MGM Studios Teases Exciting Shows and Movies for Prime Video

Stars from Amazon MGM Studios, Prime Video Sports, Amazon Music, and Wondery appeared on stage including Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Will Ferrell, Roger Federer, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tony Gonzalez, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jenny Han, Aldis Hodge, Alicia Keys, Patton Oswalt, Keke Palmer, Alan Ritchson, Octavia Spencer, Charissa Thompson, Lola Tung, Hannah Waddingham and Reese Witherspoon were all on hand at the company US upfront in New York.

Amazon revealed details on upcoming Original series and films:

• Elle: Prime Video has ordered the Legally Blonde prequel series Elle from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Creator Laura Kittrell (High School, Insecure) is set as show runner, with Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter, Lauren Kisilevsky and Marc Platt serving as executive producers.
• Untitled Road House sequel: Amazon MGM Studios confirmed that a second Road House is in the works with Jake Gyllenhaal reprising his role as Dalton. Plot details are being kept under wraps for the sequel. The studio also announced that Road House has attracted nearly 80 million worldwide viewers to date.
• Noir: MGM+ and Prime Video have ordered Noir, a live-action series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir. Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage is set to star in the series. Emmy Award-winning director Harry Bradbeer is set to direct and executive produce the first two episodes. Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot will serve as co-show runners and executive producers. Uziel and Lightfoot developed the series with Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal, the Academy Award-winning team behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse who will also serve as executive producers.
• Tomb Raider: Prime Video has ordered a Tomb Raider series with Phoebe Waller-Bridge set as writer and executive producer. The series is based on the iconic Tomb Raider video game franchise, which follows the adventures of world-famous archaeologist and adventurer Lara Croft. The project comes as part of a deal between Crystal Dynamics and Amazon MGM Studios, originating through dj2’s first-look deal with the studio, to develop additional Tomb Raider stories into series and films. Tomb Raider will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith: The critically acclaimed television series Mr. & Mrs. Smith has been renewed for a second season. From co-creators and executive producers Donald Glover and Francesca Sloane, the series, a re-imagining of the 2005 film.
• Cross: Cross has been renewed for a second season. From Paramount Television Studios and Skydance Television, Cross is a complex, twisted, pulse-pounding thriller created by Ben Watkins, based upon the characters from James Patterson’s best-selling Alex Cross book series. Joining the Season 2 cast are Wes Chatham, Matthew Lillard and Jeanine Mason. The first season of Cross will premiere later this year exclusively on Prime Video.
• The Boys: The Emmy-winning hit drama series The Boys has been ordered for a fifth season. The Boys will premiere its diabolical fourth season on 13 June 2024, with three episodes, followed by a new episode each week, ending with the epic season finale on Thursday, 18 July.
• Pop Culture Jeopardy!: Prime Video has ordered Pop Culture Jeopardy! from Sony Pictures Television. This collaboration marks the first time that the SPT Game Show Division will expand the Jeopardy! franchise into streaming, creating a new extension series exclusively for Prime Video’s global audience.
• Wish List Games; Buy It Now; Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?: Prime Video announced it has new unscripted series Buy It Now hosted by JB Smoove on the way, joining the holiday event Wish List Games hosted by Nick Cannon. Prime Video also revealed the celebrity classmates set to appear on Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? hosted by three-time Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce.
• The 1% Club: Trailer and key art for The 1% Club, hosted by award-winning comedian and actor Patton Oswalt (The Goldbergs, A.P. Bio, Ratatouille), were revealed. The show will test the nation’s intelligence through a series of questions backed by scientific surveys. New episodes of The 1% Club will be available Mondays at 9/8C on FOX beginning 3 June and next day on Prime Video.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Attendees were transported back to Middle-earth with a first look at the upcoming second season of the hit series. The series’ first season was an unprecedented global success and one of the top original series for Prime Video, viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide, and driving more Prime sign-ups worldwide during its launch window than any other previous content to date.
• The Summer I Turned Pretty: Season 3 of the generation-defining phenomenon from writer, creator and show runner Jenny Han will debut in summer 2025 and be supersized at 11 episodes.
• You’re Cordially Invited: Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell unveiled the teaser trailer and first look at their upcoming Prime Video comedy. 

Amazon Takes Live Sports Experiences to the Next Level

Over the past two seasons, as the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football, Prime Video has delivered award-winning coverage with game-changing, AI-driven innovations to weekly audiences that scale in excess of 10 million viewers. Jay Marine, Prime Video’s VP and global head of sports, took the stage to talk about the success of TNF, whose viewers average seven years younger and watch more of the games than linear NFL audiences. In addition, last season’s viewership grew by 24% over the previous year. In 2023, Prime Video launched a new holiday tradition on the national sports calendar with the first-ever NFL Black Friday Football game. Prime Video will also cap its season by presenting its first-ever NFL playoff game, with an exclusive Wild Card matchup in January. This year, the third season of TNF on Prime Video will kick off with the Miami Dolphins hosting the Buffalo Bills on 12 Sept.
Building on the success of TNF, Prime Video continues to grow its portfolio of compelling sports offerings to drive even more appointment viewing among mass audiences. This expansion includes an investment in women’s sports, including the WNBA and the National Women’s Soccer League.
Additionally, in 2025, Prime Video will also become the exclusive home of five NASCAR Cup Series races, and Earnhardt joined the presentation to celebrate his recent appointment as an analyst when Prime Video launches its live race coverage next May.

The lineup of sports entertainment on Prime Video also includes compelling stories from behind the game with sports documentaries and docuseries, like an upcoming feature-length documentary about Federer and a four-part docuseries on Dale Earnhardt Sr. Both Federer and Earnhardt made onstage appearances at the presentation to tease their upcoming projects.

Amazon Ads Tools: Revolutionizing the Way Brands Connect to Customers

To connect the dots between this robust universe of premium content and audiences, Amazon Ads has the scale, insights and ad tech to deliver results for brands. Prime Video’s average unique audience compared to other streaming services is 47%  and it drives 56% incremental lift among adults 18 to 49 compared to linear TV.
Even brands that don’t sell products or services on Amazon can connect to customers through this premium world of content. Amazon Marketing Cloud is the Amazon Ads clean room solution that enables advertisers to measure and optimize spend regardless of where the customer conversion takes place, as if they were selling a product in the Amazon store. Amazon Ads leverages first-party signals, alongside the advertiser’s own, to deliver ads across their entire media campaign.

Discover the Endless Entertainment Possibilities with Twitch, Amazon Music, Fire TV, and Wondery

Beyond the shows, movies, and sports, the Amazon entertainment universe extends to music, gaming, devices, and podcasts.

On Twitch, streamers form communities around shared passions. Amazon is creating The Glitch, customized playable worlds, in Fortnite, for gaming communities on Twitch.

 Amazon Music has announced Amazon Music Live, its concert series after Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, will return for its third season this fall. The livestream event has become a massive stage for artists to share culture-defining new music after the game. Fans are increasingly coming to Prime Video and Twitch to watch Amazon Music Live.

Wondery announced that actor/comedian Nick Cannon and Courtney Bee will host the second season of the hit podcast, We Playin’ Spades, and that social media sensation Annie Agar will be joining the network with a new sports podcast titled The Offensive Line. Wondery has sold projects to networks, studios and streamers (like Dr. Death, WeCrashed, and Joe vs. Carol), and builds robust, 360-degree franchises that foster fan communities with books, board games, merch and more. With Amazon Ads, Wondery can bridge the gap between podcasts, digital video and streaming TV to deliver audio and visual advertising opportunities.

Photo Gallery:

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* photos are from Amazon's US Upfront