Amazon Prime is a very popular service that gives customers access to free next-day delivery on thousands of items, but many pay the monthly subscription fee to get hold of Amazon Prime Video’s extensive catalogue of TV shows and films such as Reacher, The Rings of Power, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Fargo, and many more.
At a cost of £8.99 per month, you can stream everything in the Amazon Prime Video library on any device, and by paying you also do not have to watch any adverts – but that is about to change.
Amazon has announced via email to subscribers that as of 5 February 2024, Prime Video streams will contain “limited” ads. The only way to get rid of them is to pay an extra £2.99 per month. On top of the £8.99 fee, that’s £11.98 per month to stream Prime Video with no adverts, 99p more than Netflix’s cheapest ad-free tier, which costs £10.99.
In the email, Amazon said the change “will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers.”
Netflix offers a £4.99 subscription that shows ads, the same as Disney+, which means Amazon will soon be charging £4 more at £8.99 and still showing ads, unless you stump up another three quid on top.
If you decide to pay, Amazon says you’ll not see ads on any content, except for live sports. Customers in the US and Canada will see ads from 29 January, and the change is expected to hit other countries worldwide in 2024.
In a press release earlier this year that announced the change, Amazon said the change would allow the company to “continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time”. The implication here is that Amazon is trying to draw as much revenue as possible from subscribers to allow it to reinvest in producing original content, as well as the licensing to show old classic TV shows and films.
With the introduction of Paramount+ in the UK, competition has never been hotter as TV and movie fans decide which streaming platforms to pay for and which to ditch. Though Amazon is putting its prices up, Prime does also offer access to e-books, music, and Amazon shopping events, and discounts on other services, such as unlimited food delivery with Deliveroo Plus.
