Movies and TV shows on Amazon’s streaming service will start getting broken up with ads in January — unless you’re willing to pony up an extra fee each month.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
— Earlier this year, Amazon announced plans to start incorporating ads into movies and TV shows streamed from its Prime Video service, and now the company has revealed a specific date when you’ll start seeing them: it’s January 29th.
“This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time,” the company said in an email to customers about the pending shift to “limited advertisements.”
“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,” the company wrote. Customers have the option of paying an additional $2.99 per month to keep avoiding advertisements.
The rest of the email summarizes the many benefits of a Prime subscription — no doubt an attempt to keep customers from canceling over this decision. Verge readers were none too pleased about the initial news back in September:
Amazon Prime currently costs $14.99 each month or $139 annually. (Prime Video can be subscribed to individually for $8.99/month.) The new charge for ad-free streaming would bring Prime to just under $18, and would push standalone Prime Video to just under $12.
Amazon also operates Freevee, a free, ad-sponsored streaming service. The company’s email notes that “live event content such as sports, and content offered through Amazon Freevee will continue to include advertising.”
The move comes as competing streaming services continue to raise subscription rates across the board and push ads upon customers on their cheapest monthly plans. Disney Plus, Hulu, Max, Netflix, and Paramount Plus all include ads on their most affordable tiers. The monthly cost of Amazon Prime itself isn’t changing, but if you want to preserve the same experience you have today starting on January 29th, you’ll end up paying more.
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— Techmeme