PRIME VIDEO To Roll Out Ads Next Month

Following Amazon’s announcement of ads on Prime Video we now have a rollout date and more details.

Commercials duirng series and movies are on the way to Pime Video subscribers on 29 January Canada, US, UK and Germany. Later in 2024 commercials will come to France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia.

These “limited advertisements” will enable Prime Video “to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time”. An important caveat to the new system is that there are no ads for rented and purchassed content.

Amazon follows Netflix and Disney+ in providing customers with ad tier and ad free options. It remains to be seen how this will affect subscriber numbers. There has been significant pushback about the decision to effectively raise the price of the ad free tier. Whether that will translate to a noticeable loss in subscriber number remains to be seen.

Check out the official text of the announcement below:

We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. 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. No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership.

We will also offer a new ad-free option for an additional $2.99 per month* that you can sign up for here. Prime Video customers have the option to pre-register for the monthly ad-free option, but won’t be billed until January 29.

Are you a Prime Video subscriber? Will you ‘upgrade’ to the ad free tier to continue watching shows on Amazon as you have before?

SOURCE: Deadline.com