WTF! Amazon Prime Video Will Start Having Ads Sooner Than You Think
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If you’re an Amazon Prime Video subscriber, prepare for annoying ad interruptions. The streaming platform has started to inform subscribers that their planned move to integrate commercials is happening sooner than we thought.
According to The Verge, some customers have begun receiving emails about when to expect the streaming service to show “limited advertisements” when a new ad-free tier rolls out — on January 29.
Subscribers who don’t want to sit through ads while streaming their favorite TV or movie will have to pay an extra $3 per month in addition to their Prime subscription fees. This means the new charge for an ad-free experience will run you approximately $18 per month, up from $14.99, or $12 for the standalone Prime Video, up from $9.
When the new ad-free fee was announced earlier this year, the company said it’s aiming “to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers,” it’s one of the last of the many streaming platforms to integrate higher-priced packages to avoid seeing commercials.
Variety says commercial interruptions for subscribers who don’t want to fork over an additional $3 per month will see approximately “four minutes per hour” of commercials as a rough benchmark.
Prime Video is far from the only streaming service that has changed its offerings to include ads and ad-free options, among other moves to optimize profits as the competition increases. Nearly all the major services — which include Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu — offer higher monthly subscription fees to avoid interruptions from ads.
Other streaming services are combining offerings to help incentivize new subscribers, including a new Netflix and Max bundle that will allow customers to save approximately 40 percent per month (when compared to the per-month price of each service separately) for its ad-supported tiers and the rumored Apple TV+ and Paramount+ bundle which will offer a similar incentive for new subscribers.
For those who hoped that the streaming dream to defeat cable was still alive, this latest development seems like more proof that the dream is officially over.