Amazon Prime Video to interrupt with ads unless paying $2.99/month extra

Starting on January 29th, the viewing experience for Amazon Prime Video members will be downgraded to include “limited advertisements” unless they choose to pay an extra $2.99 per month.

Amazon Prime members have started receiving emails informing them about the change. Ads will be introduced to all members, and a new ad-free option will come for an additional $2.99 per month.

“This 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,” Amazon claims. adding that “no action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership.”

Amazon is sure that “Prime is a very compelling value,” allowing members to enjoy shopping, savings, and entertainment benefits. The benefits are then listed in an email.

The upcoming change was announced back in September when Amazon said ads in Prime Video content would be introduced in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada in early 2024, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in the year.

However, currently, there are no official changes or dates announced to users in Germany, golem.de writes. It remains unclear how the fees could change in other markets and what Amazon’s ad-free option means.

Amazon Prime currently costs $14.99 per month in the US and €8.99 ($9.93) per month in Germany. The annual rates are $139 and €89.90 ($99.35) respectively.

The rate increase for the ad-free option would put the total price for Prime at almost $18 per month in the US.

With Prime, Amazon offers free delivery options, access to streaming video content and channels, shopping events, Amazon Music service, gaming, books, photo storage, and other benefits.