Amazon Prime Video will introduce ads to its movies and TV shows starting January 29

[midian182]

A hot potato: It's been confirmed that Amazon Prime Video viewers can mark January 29 in their diaries. But the day won't be a celebration; it's the date that Amazon will start showing commercials within its movies and TV shows unless you pay even more for your subscription.

Back in September, Amazon made the unwelcome announcement that ads would be coming to the video streaming element of its $14.99 per month/$139 per year Prime service. They will also be part of the $9 per month standalone Prime Video membership plan.

As with other streamers, the company will allow customers to go ad-free if they increase their subscription payment, by an additional $2.99 per month.

We now know that the "limited advertisements" will arrive on Prime Video on January 29. In an email to customers, Amazon wrote that the move "will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time."

Amazon emphasized that it will have "meaningfully" fewer ads than its streaming competitors. Variety writes that four minutes per hour seems to be the current lowest amount of ad time on a streaming platform.

The first regions to see the ads will be the US, UK, Germany, and Canada. Subscribers in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia will see them late next year.

Amazon included a link in its email for those who want to sign up to the ad-free tier for an extra $3 per month. Those who don't want to see ads (and who does?), will start paying just under $18 per month for Prime or just under $12 pm for standalone Prime Video.

Amazon is just the latest streaming service to essentially raise its prices, even if it is through the introduction of an ad tier. Disney Plus, Hulu, Max, Netflix, and Paramount Plus also include ads on their cheapest plans.

In August, a report found that subscribing to all premium streaming services cost $87 per month, $14 more than it was one year earlier ($73), while the average cable TV package cost $83 per month, potentially signaling the end of cheap streaming and cord-cutting. The fact there has been an uptick in piracy since Covid is unlikely to be a coincidence.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/101331-amazon-prime-video-introduce-ads-movies-tv-shows.html

 

[wiak]

Time to drop prime video then, starting to look a lot like linear tv these days, fck ads (they literally destroys a show)

 

[winjer]

No way I'm paying a subscription and get ads on top.
Screw Amazon for trying to charge costumers twice.

 

[umeng2002]

What a joke.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Streaming was always destined to follow cable TV in regards to ads and pricing.

 

[mrvco]

There isn’t much that I want to watch on Prime Video anymore. So much content has been moved to FreeVee already. Apparently that extra $3 / month isn’t going to remove ads from FreeVee. We will see.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Ads for free streaming, for me, is okay. IF (key word here, "if") they are done well. A few (few, being 2-4) 15 second ads or at most a couple (couple, being 2 at most) of 30 second ads I can deal with, but when a streaming channel has 8 ads you need to watch through to continue the show, no thanks. That's when I stop watching because I don't want to sit and wait through 3-6 minutes worth of ads.

If I'm paying for something and they still want to show ads, no thanks.

Thankfully I don't sub to Prime or Hulu or Disney or any other channel that requires payment and still wants to show you ads. If I did, I'd drop them. I'm on the cusp of dropping Netflix and they don't even show ads (not yet in the standard sub model anyway), but if they raise the price again or start sneaking in ads then I'm done and I'll save my money.

 

[godrilla]

Next week I'm on Holiday about to binge watch the Man in the high castle before this kick in. With the price premiums going up across the board I'm evaluating what to keep and what to cancel. Netflix uhd premium was the first on the chopping block.

 

[Raytrace3D]

Oh look, a 1.5 trillion dollar company needs more money...

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Whelp, seeing as the Grand Tour is at its end, and clarkson's farm is kinda in limbo, I'll be ending my Prime sub this year. Business is drying up for PC repair anyway, so I'll just eat the shipping charge on anything under $25 anyway.

 

[masaaya4]

I have been subscribed to Amazon prime before, but only through the free or discounted trial periods. I cannot accept that I cannot watch 4K UHD content (only 1080HD) on a modern pc with a 4K tv as monitor

this has been a persistent issue over a few years now.

prices going up on these streaming services with promises of delivering better content but I doubt this, too many streaming services have over invested in exclusive content production in hopes of growing faster than their own costs, and the steaming market in convoluted and confusing to the point where we are down to 1 from a previous high of 4 streaming services 2-3 years ago.

 

[p51d007]

99% of the stuff I wanted to watch on Prime, I've already done so. None of the new stuff interests me anyway.
Streaming services are like crack dealers. "give-it-away" til people are hooked, then start jacking up the price.

 

[emmzo]

All these streaming companies understood, after the Netflix experiment, that most people are addicts and will keep paying more and more as long as the increments are tiny and are constantly "threaten" with ads. I bet most people barely have the time to watch a few shows or movies on any of these platforms, yet they will happily pay more for basically the same service. As someone pointed out above, sooner or later they will follow cable, big prices plus ads and you'll like it.

 

[Superconductor]

Prime Video is no longer a value-ad proposition for the whole Prime Membership scheme that only gets more & more expensive. L m A o

 

[Abaidor]

I have Netflix "ON" constantly and just activate subscriptions on other platforms for a month to watch the occasional show I am interested in and when all episodes of a series have landed. I don't have much time to waste on "garbage" anyways....

 

[ZackL04]

Oh look, a 1.5 trillion dollar company needs more money...

This is likely not a big money maker for them. My guess is their hosting and licensing fee’s are continually rising and they dont want to increase their Prime memberships again.

No business will just eat the cost of anything

 

[Hexagon]

And pirate downloads will increase.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

This is likely not a big money maker for them. My guess is their hosting and licensing fee’s are continually rising and they dont want to increase their Prime memberships again.

No business will just eat the cost of anything

The last time they raised the Prime cost was the day after they posted record annual revenue AND record profit. They're not hurting.

 

[Jim Fur]

I think every streaming service will do the same, unless their users strart discontinuing the subscriptions.

 

[toooooot]

I think every streaming service will do the same, unless their users strart discontinuing the subscriptions.

They will keep raising prices and introducing more and more ads.
The nightmare we ran from has found us at our new home.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Classic enshittification, going according to plan

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I think every streaming service will do the same, unless their users strart discontinuing the subscriptions.

They wont though. Netflix raised prices and cracked down on password sharing, and saw a massive surge in new subs. Consooomers will consooom.

 

[Impudicus]

If jacking up the price to $149 wasn't enough, this will do it. It'll start with just a few ads, then the money comes in and a few more and a few more. When you trade the quality of the customer experience for pure greed, that's when you lose me. Goodbye Amazon, I will avoid you at all cost from here on out.

 

[ZackL04]

The last time they raised the Prime cost was the day after they posted record annual revenue AND record profit. They're not hurting.

I know, and thats why I said this is likely a lateral cost coverage move for them.

At my company, when my purchase cost of a product increases, so does my price to my buyers. Im not making more, but I sure as hell am not making less either.