Amazon Takes Prime Video to Super Bowl for First Time

Amazon has bought a 60-second Super Bowl spot promoting its Prime Video service the first time.

With NBC selling 30-second commercials for about $5 million, Prime Video will be promoting its upcoming series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, which will premiere Aug. 1.

The Super Bowl is TV’s biggest and most viewed event. Digital and streaming services have been eating into traditional media, taking away both viewers and advertising.  Yet digital companies still turn to TV to promote important products.

Given the colossal scope and scale of the series coupled with the popularity of Tom Clancy's novels, we knew Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan would be a natural fit for Prime Video’s first Super Bowl ad,” said Mike Benson, Head of Marketing for Amazon Studios.  “The global nature of the audience provides us with a unique opportunity to give viewers a look at this thrilling new series coming to Prime.”

Amazon’s Prime Video ad is schedule to air immediately following the Super Bowl half time show. It features Ryan, played by John Krasinski,  and is set to audio from political leaders including Presidents John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Donald J. Trump, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan.  The soundtrack is Ed Sheeran performing Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower.

The series is produced by Amazon Studios, Paramount Television and Skydance Television.

Executive producers are Carlton Cuse who also serves as the showrunner, Krasinski, Morten Tyldum, who also directed the pilot, Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes, and Graham Roland (Almost Human), who wrote the pilot based on a story he and Cuse developed.

Executive producing with Bay at Platinum Dunes are Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, as well as Skydance’s David Ellison and Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross, along with Mace Neufeld and co-executive producer Lindsey Springer.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.