Amazon Prime Video will start showing ads starting January 29 next year
Advertising seems like the set-in-stone kind of revenue, when it comes to content. So much so, that even the biggest streaming platforms are now giving in. In a significant departure from its ad-free streaming tradition, advertisements are set to make their debut on Amazon Prime Video starting January 29, 2024. This development serves as the sequel to an earlier announcement by Amazon – in September, the company had announced plans to place “limited advertisements” on Prime Video in several countries, such as in the UK, US, Germany and Canada.
While US subscribers brace for ads from January 29, customers in the UK and Germany will encounter “limited advertisements” starting February 5. Amazon’s roadmap includes extending this strategy to additional countries, such as France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia, later in 2024.
“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,” the company said in an email to customers about the pending shift to “limited advertisements,” the company said, adding that it aims 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. Of course, not all news is bleak, and Amazon has made provisions for those who are not particularly keen on encountering advertisements, limited though they may be. The company noted that users who wish to keep avoiding advertisements will have the option of paying an additional $2.99 per month.
Amazon’s decision to introduce limited advertisements in Prime Video stems the fact that high quality content requires massive investments, something that subscription revenue alone just can not suffice. The company reassured subscribers that the number of ads will be kept significantly lower than what is typically experienced on linear TV and other streaming platforms. Unsurprisingly, upon the initial announcement, there was a notable backlash from subscribers expressing dissatisfaction with the impending inclusion of ads. This shift prompts Amazon to manage the potential fallout. The premium of $2.99 per month alters the cost dynamics, pushing the total cost of Prime just under $18 and standalone Prime Video to just under $12.
