Building H Index
Prime Video
INDUSTRY
entertainment
products Profiled
Amazon’s Prime Video video streaming service
H-Score
27
ranked 3rd (tie) of 7 within entertainment industry
ranked 33rd (tie) of 37 overall
product description
Amazon’s video streaming service, Prime Video, allows subscribers to watch video content on a variety of devices (including televisions, computers, tablets and smartphones) on a 24/7 basis. Usage of the service is unlimited over the duration of subscription to any Amazon Prime/Prime Video subscription plan and charged at a flat rate. Amazon also hosts channels that can be subscribed to separately. Some channel subscriptions offer a feature to watch programming live.(1) While most content does not include commercial breaks, some channels may do so.
Amazon Prime has approximately 200 million subscribers globally.(2) Prime Video offers approximately 24,000 movies and over 2,100 shows, offers even more movies and TV episodes for rent/sale, and over 100 channels.(3) Amazon had recently reported that 175 million people had streamed content from Prime Video in 2020.(4)
product usage
Most people use the product by sitting, for sustained periods of time, and watching content on a screen. Most users watch the service indoors most of the time and use the service sometimes alone and sometimes with friends or family. While using the service, the service consumes most, if not all, of the user’s attention. Prime Video is one of several competing video streaming services and most users who watch programming on Prime Video also spend time watching other services as well.
influence on health-related behaviors
EATING
slight negative influence
Television viewers frequently eat while watching TV and the foods they eat tend to be less healthy than foods consumed at meal times. Watching TV multiple hours a day has been linked to unhealthy dietary behaviors, and increased outcomes of diet-related diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.(5,6)
People tend to eat more mindlessly while watching TV because they’re distracted: food is less satisfying, and you miss cues that you’ve eaten enough.(7)
In Building H’s consumer research 64% of video streaming users (not specific to Prime Video) reported eating at least one meal per week and 59% of users reported snacking sometimes, usually or always, while watching streamed content. 37% of users who streamed more than 4 hours per day reported eating more than one meal per day and 49% of those users reported snacking usually or always, while watching.(8)
Some association between diet and television watching has been attributed to the presence of advertisements for unhealthy foods.(9,10) Most content on Prime Video is streamed without advertisements. We do not have information on whether the advertisements shown on ad-supported channels include promotion of unhealthy foods.
- Establish standards for screening out ads that promote unhealthy food, particularly unhealthy food targeted at children.
PHYSICAL ACTVITY
moderate negative influence
Television watching is typically a sedentary activity, thus time spent watching television limits opportunities for physical activity. In addition, television viewing is an especially sedentary behavior, having a lower metabolic rate than other sedentary activities.(11) While a moderate amount of television watching would leave time for more active pursuits, Americans on average spend approximately six hours per day watching video content(12) and less than 5% of Americans get 30 minutes per day of moderate physical activity.(13)
Prime Video’s implementation of streaming video uses features that encourage greater use of the service: the flat subscription rate sets no maximum limit on viewing; and the autoplay feature automatically plays next episodes, often within five seconds, thus encouraging binge-watching. Autoplay is activated for children’s programming as well. Users do not have the option to disable the autoplay feature.
The addition of a live television option potentially encourages more viewing.
- Shift away from encouraging binge-watching:
- eliminate the autoplaying of next episodes or at least eliminate autoplay for children’s programming
- make autoplay opt-in rather than opt-out or at least enable users to disable autoplay
Sleeping
slight to moderate negative influence
Late-night television viewing negatively affects sleep in two ways: 1) by offering a competitive alternative to sleep; and 2) through the bright, blue spectrum light of the screens that has been shown to suppress the production of melatonin, a hormone that signals the onset of the sleep cycle.(14)
Building H’s consumer research found that 54.7% of video streaming users (not specific to Prime Video) reported that watching TV or movies caused them to lose some sleep at least once a week on average, with 36.6% reporting that they got less sleep for this reason two or more times a week. 14.5% reported their sleep being affected four or more nights a week.(15)
Prime Video encourages binge-watching (which can compete with sleep) through the use of autoplay.
It does not adapt any of its features to treat “bedtime” differently than any hour of the day.
Prime Video might also influence sleep indirectly through its influences on physical activity and time spent outdoors, as both of those behaviors are positively correlated with better sleep.
- Enable users to set a bedtime mode, as with iOS and Android, such that they can specify the hours when they hope to go to sleep and then respect those hours by making the user choose affirmatively to watch new episodes after the set bedtime.
- Adapt recommendation algorithms to promote less intense programming in the hour prior to the user’s set bedtime.
Engaging Socially
neutral to slight negative influence
Television watching can be either a solo or a social activity. Building H’s consumer research found that 36.1% of streaming users (not specific to Prime Video) reported watching with others at least 75% of the time, 26.6% reported sometimes watching with others and 37.3% reported watching with others less than 25% of the time.(16) These results are consistent with other research that found Americans split their time evenly between watching alone or watching with others.(17)
Watching television alone clearly competes with social activity, but watching with significant others, family and friends can enhance relationships.
Prime Video offers “Watch Party,” a feature that allows a user to sync up watching with up to 100 other subscribers, as a beta service.(18) Watch Party also offers a chat function that enables users to converse in real time while they watch a show together. Watch Party is available to users who watch on a laptop or desktop computer. We do not have information on how many users use Watch Party, or how often.
- Promote and/or make the Watch Party feature more prominent.
- Create prominent opportunities for online discussions about shows.
Getting Outdoors
moderate negative influence
As most viewing takes place indoors, time watching television competes with time spent outdoors.
- Shift away from encouraging binge-watching.
Notes
Daniela Coppola. Number of Paying Amazon Prime Members Worldwide from 2015 to 2020. Statista. November 23, 2021
Ben Blanchet et al. Prime Video Lets You Stream Original Movies, Shows, and Thursday Night Football Games — Plans Start at $9 a Month. Business Insider. August 6, 2021
Chris Lindahl. How Many People Are Watching Apple TV+ Anyway?. IndieWire. July 3, 2021
Georgina Cairns et al. Systematic reviews of the evidence on the nature, extent and effects of food marketing to children. A retrospective summary. Appetite. Volume 62, 1 March 2013. Pages 209-215.
Ahmad Alghadir et al. Television Watching, Diet and Body Mass Index of School Children in Saudi Arabia. Pediatrics International. Volume 58, Issue 4, April 2016. Pages 290-294.
Janna Smith and Tanya Ditschun. Controlling satiety: how environmental factors influence food intake. Trends in Food Science & Psychology. Volume 20, Issues 6–7, July 2009. Pages 271-277.
Steve Downs. A Survey of Modern Life: Food; Delivery Apps, Meal Kits, Groceries and Cooking Dinner. Building H on Medium. January 20, 2022.
J.L. Harris et al. Priming effects of television food advertising on eating behavior. Health Psychology, 28(4), (2009). Pages 404–413.
Cairns et al. (2013)
Barbara Ainsworth et al. Compendium of Physical Activities: Classification of Energy Costs of Human Physical Activities. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, January 1993, pp. 71-80.
Sarah Perez. U.S. Adults Now Spend Nearly 6 Hours per Day Watching Video. TechCrunch, July 31, 2018
President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition. Facts & Statistics
Matthew Walker. Why We Sleep. pp. 267-270.
Steve Downs. A Survey of Modern Life: Sleep; New Data on American Sleeping Patterns. Building H on Medium. May 25, 2021
Carlo Martinez. A Survey of Modern Life: Entertainment. Building H on Medium. May 4, 2021
When You Watch, Are You Alone? Radio & Television Business Report January 15, 2019
Prime Video Watch Party: Stream TV & Movies With Friends. Amazon website.