


Bad news, Amazon Prime Video subscribers: the streamer is planning to introduce ads in 2024.
Commercials will be added to movies and series in the U.S., Canada, UK, and Germany in early 2024, and later on in Australia, Spain, Mexico, France, and Italy, Deadline reports.
Amazon stated they plan to roll out “limited” ads to maintain “meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers.”
If Amazon Prime subscribers in the United States would like forego ads, they will have to pay an additional $2.99 a month on top of the $14.99 they currently pay a month for Prime Video and free delivery perks.
Amazon claims the ads will help them “continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.”
As Deadline notes, Amazon first introduced commercials to their platform in 2022 with Thursday Night Football, to which the streamer has exclusive rights in an 11-year deal.
And they’re certainly not the first streamer to hike up their prices or introduce an ad-free tier this year.
Starting Oct. 12, Disney+ will be increasing the monthly price of its ad-free subscription tier to $13.99. Hulu, which is also owned by Disney, has announced that they will be raising the price of their ad-free tier from $14.99 to $17.99 a month.
Netflix also got rid of its ad-free plan and replaced it with a $15.49 ad-free “standard” plan and a $19.99 premium plan that allows multiple streams. Peacock, Max, and Paramount+ have also all raised their prices this year.
U.S. Prime Video subscribers will reportedly receive an email before the new ad plan goes into place, so they will have plenty of time to upgrade their subscriptions if they choose to.
The company claims the $14.99 base price for Amazon Prime will not change.