At the beginning of this year, Amazon announced plans to start incorporating ads in movies and TV shows streamed from its Prime Video service. This way, Amazon follows the current trend of all streaming services: squeezing every playback.
Now the company has revealed a specific date when you will start seeing them: it will be on January 29, 2024. “This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and to increase that investment over a long period of time,” the company said in an email to customers about the change.
“Our goal is to have significantly fewer ads than traditional television and other streaming TV providers. No action is required on your part, and there is no change in the current price of your Prime membership,” the company wrote.
The price to pay to avoid ads
Customers have the option to pay an additional $2.99 per month to continue avoiding ads. This is undoubtedly a very risky move for a service that has millions of customers because it is included in the Amazon Premium membership, not for its value as a streaming platform.
The rest of the email summarizes the many benefits of subscribing to Prime, undoubtedly an attempt to prevent customers from canceling their subscription because of this decision.
The measure comes at a time when competing streaming services continue to raise subscription fees across the board and impose advertising on customers of their cheaper monthly plans.
Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Netflix, and Paramount Plus include ads in their more affordable plans. The monthly cost of Amazon Prime itself will not change, but if you want to keep the same experience you have today starting January 29th, you will end up paying almost $3 more.
