Amazon is planning to build out its advertising business further, as it prepares to launch an ad-supported tier for Prime Video.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the plans are in the early stages and come in the wake of cost-cutting that saw 18,000 employees sacked around two rounds of redundancies.

Amazon’s advertising arm shows no signs of slowing however, surging by 21 per cent year-on-year in the first three months of the year.

As the company focuses more on streaming entertainment, it will be hoping to squeeze more advertising dollars from its hefty investments in this area; Amazon spent over A$10 billion last year on original content, third-party licensing, and sports rights.

Amazon is also bidding for the rights to the National Basketball Association, which will be a costly exercise should it be successful.