Best Buy and Amazon expand Fire TV pact, opening Insignia TV ad inventory to Best Buy Ads via Amazon Ads tech
Best Buy Ads gets to sell Insignia Fire TV ad inventory from February 2027, but Amazon supplies the device platform, the viewing signal and the programmatic ad-tech underneath — the buyer-facing leg is Best Buy's, the enrichment stack is Amazon's.
Where the rake sits
Best Buy Ads holds the advertiser and books the media revenue on Insignia Fire TV inventory; Amazon takes an undisclosed cut for Fire OS distribution and the Amazon Ads programmatic stack. The split is not disclosed, and because Amazon owns the device software, the install base and the ad-serving tech, Best Buy's share reads as a rake on loan — if the pact lapses, both the inventory and the tech leave with Amazon.
What happened
- Announced 23 September 2026; Best Buy Ads begins using Amazon Ads' programmatic technology in February 2027.
- Fire TV remains the exclusive TV software on all Insignia TVs (24-85 inch), with the latest Fire TV UI and Alexa+ integrated across the majority of models.
- Best Buy Ads will offer brands access to Fire TV ad inventory on all new and existing Insignia TVs; Amazon Ads tech handles plan, activate, optimise and measure.
- Partnership dates to 2018; over 100 TV models shipped since, with tens of millions of Insignia Fire TV sets in homes.
- Best Buy remains the exclusive retailer for Insignia TVs, in store, on BestBuy.com and on Amazon.com (sold by Best Buy).
- Quoted principals: Lisa Valentino (chief ads and media officer, Best Buy) and Charlotte Maines (VP devices, content, and advertising, Amazon).
Who is involved
US consumer-electronics retailer; owner of the Insignia private-label TV brand, whose Fire-TV-powered devices carry the ad inventory this deal opens to Best Buy Ads.
Largest consumer-electronics retailer in the US; ~1,000 North American stores per corporate site; NYSE: BBY
Operator of Fire TV and Amazon Ads; supplies the CTV device platform (Fire OS on Insignia TVs) and the programmatic ad-tech stack Best Buy Ads will run on from February 2027.
Over 300M Fire TV devices sold globally per Amazon Ads; Amazon's ad-supported streaming solutions reach roughly 155M unduplicated US monthly viewers; NASDAQ: AMZN
The reading
The enrichment on the CTV leg is done by Amazon: Fire TV supplies the device platform and viewing signal, Amazon Ads supplies the programmatic tech Best Buy Ads runs on starting February 2027, and Best Buy contributes retail-side audience data.
The buyer's decision is which household seeing a given Fire TV screen to place a video ad in front of; Best Buy's electronics-purchase signal layered onto Fire TV device-level viewing on Insignia sets is what an endemic advertiser would pay a premium over generic CTV for.
Ad placements and measurement cross to advertisers; Fire OS-level viewing telemetry stays with Amazon and Best Buy retail purchase records stay with Best Buy — neither party appears to be selling its underlying file to the other.
Not determinable: revenue split between Best Buy Ads and Amazon Ads on this inventory is not disclosed.
Why it matters
Retail-media cases usually get read as the retailer capturing first-party signal against endemic ad budgets, but here the retailer is renting the screen, the OS and the ad server from a single counterparty who is also a rival ad seller. Worth sharpening around what Best Buy actually owns in this stack once the Amazon Ads tech is doing the plan/activate/optimise/measure work, and whether the Insignia purchase-signal justifies the buyer-facing leg staying with Best Buy Ads.
Sources
- corporate.bestbuy.com — primary
- simple.wikipedia.org — party background
- ebsco.com — party background
- advertising.amazon.com — party background
- streamtvinsider.com — party background
Announced 2026-09-23 · Added to the register 2026-09-25