By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man –Follow on X.
Former editor of 4 TV magazines. Author of TV Dot Com.
Amazon announced today that it will start showing ads with Prime Video shows and movies on January 29 unless you pay an extra $3 a month ($2.99 to be exact) to exclude them. The etailer announced last September that the new ads-included version would be implemented in early 2024.
“This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time,” Amazon said in an e-mail send today to Prime subscribers.
The company said the Prime Video shows and movies will include “limited advertisements,” but it did not specify how long the ads will be or how many will air per hour.
Amazon’s live sports, such as NFL Thursday Night Football games, already include commercials but soon so will shows such as Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Reacher, The Boys, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
An Amazon Prime membership, which includes Prime Video, costs $14.99 a month or $139 a year. A membership plan to only Prime Video is $8.99 a month. (The Prime membership provides many more benefits, such as free two-day shipping.). The ads-free version will soon cost $11.99 a month if you purchase Prime Video separately. The $8.99 a month plan with ads, and the $11.99 a month plan without ads, are both priced comparably to other streaming services that offer both types of plans.
The introduction of ads to Prime Video is another example of the streaming industry striving for new ways to generate revenue with losses piling up due to the high cost of programming. Netflix and Max have also introduced ads-included plans in the last several months.
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The TV Answer Man is veteran journalist Phillip Swann who has covered the TV technology scene for more than three decades. He will report on the latest news and answer your questions regarding new devices and services that are changing the way you watch television. See the bio for Phillip Swann here.
