Amazon to start showing ads in 2024 unless you pay $3 more per mth

Amazon has revealed that unless customers pay an additional $3 per month on top of their usual Prime membership, Prime Video subscribers will soon see advertisements on episodes and movies. The business stated that "Prime Video shows and movies will include limited advertisements starting in early 2024," adding that further nations' ad-free tier prices would be revealed "at a later date."
As part of Amazon's Prime membership, Prime Video had not previously shown advertisements alongside movies and TV shows. This news signifies a substantial change to the service. The streaming service, which offers both Amazon Original material created by Amazon Studios and third-party content (movies, TV shows, etc.), is currently available for free with a Prime membership or $9 per month if purchased separately. This includes films like Air, Manchester by the Sea, and The Big Sick, as well as television shows like The Citadel and The Boys.

The amount of adverts you must see is unknown, although Variety speculates that "limited advertisements" may equate to about four minutes per hour. The business declared, "We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than other streaming TV providers and linear TV." The US, UK, Germany, and Canada will be the first countries in 2024 to implement ads in Prime Video content, with France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia following later in the year. There is nothing that Prime members need to do. We will not be raising the price of Prime membership in 2024."

According to a story from early this summer, Amazon was preparing to launch a Prime Video tier that would be supported by advertisements. As it happens, that's actually just the basic membership and the new tier is essentially an add-on.

In order to defend its choice, Amazon stated that it will be able to "continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time." A "vast selection of movies and series, including live sports and Amazon Originals, along with critically acclaimed series like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" was also mentioned. The business just paid millions to get the NFL Thursday Night Football rights, and in 2021 it will pay $8.5 billion to acquire MGM Studios.

Since it presently displays advertisements adjacent to live sports streaming on Prime, Amazon has already dabbled in advertising. With over 100 Prime Video original shows available on its Fire TV stick, other devices, and as an app, Amazon also provides the FreeVee ad-supported website.

One of the main draws of Amazon's $139 annual ($15 monthly) Prime membership is the ad-free Prime Video. We'll see whether there's any effect on subscriber numbers now that that's been toned down and Amazon is charging more for same-day deliveries.