Guess what? It’s another week and another price increase/ad break increase from a streamer. This time Amazon’s Prime Video is getting into the streaming shenanigans. Amazon plans to bring ads into its previously ad-free Prime Video movies and television series. This follows in the footsteps of many streamers who have recently added ads into their content strategies such as Netflix, Disney+, Max, and more. Prime Video has long remained ad-free, but it seems like the siren song of ad revenue is too strong to resist. For those who continue to desire an ad-less and commercial-free existence, Prime Video will offer an ad-free tier, but it will come at a price increase. Here’s what we know.
When and Where Will Ads Hit Prime Video
Amazon has officially set a date to introduce ads into the world of Prime Video. Ads will arrive on Prime Video on Jnauary 29, 2024. Variety reports that ads will first arrive in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada and then will come to Prime Video in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia at a later date in 2024.
How Much Will the Ad-Free Prime Video Tier Cost?
If commercials in your Prime Video movies and TV shows doesn’t sound like a fun time, you can pay to keep your experience ad-free. In the US, an ad-free Prime Video will cost $2.99 more a month on top of the annual Prime fee of $139. You can pre-register for Prime Video Ad-Free today if you want to avoid ads ever hitting your screen. Amazon notes that even with the ad-free version of Prime Video, “Live TV, Freevee, and channel subscriptions may continue to have ads.”
More About This Upcoming Change
A release from Amazon about its Prime Video ad plans shares, “Starting January 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers.” Only time will tell what exactly this chapter of Prime Video will look like. But it definitely feels like the start of a new era of streaming, one that seems to closely resemble the past.
More than ever, streaming is moving toward becoming exactly like its cable predecessor. We guess we’ll have to wait and see how consumers continue to react.
Originally published on September 22, 2023.