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As streaming platforms increase subscription prices and make sweeping changes, customers have been on the losing end of the deal. Now, Prime Video is the latest to make modifications that will have some subscribers irked.
Amazon announced this week that starting next year, Prime will begin rolling out advertisements on its programming that can only be removed if customers upgrade to an ad-less tier.
Amazon did not specify how long the advertisements would be other than that they would be “limited” and that it aims to have “meaningfully fewer ads” than competitor streaming platforms like Netflix and Peacock.
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The ad-free option of the platform will cost members an additional $2.99 per month, though the up-charging won’t begin until after 2024.
Prime Video currently costs $14.99 monthly or $139 for an annual fee.
Naturally, customers were less than thrilled about the news.
Amazon Prime Video to extort viewers for more cash. They are going to start running commercials with all their programming early next year. If you want to avoid the ads, you’ll have to pay $2.99 a month, on top of your annual Amazon Prime subscription.
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) September 22, 2023
Amazon bringing ads to Prime Video unless you pay more is why I have trust issues.
— Uncle Bob ? (@UncleBob56) September 22, 2023
Looks like Amazon Prime Video is going to start including ads soon unless you subscribe to a higher tier. I like how streaming is coming full circle when the initial appeal was there won’t be any ads.
— Punjai (@punjaikumarsamy) September 22, 2023
Prime Video adding ads to everything or asking me for another $3?
Yo ho, yo ho, it’s back to the seas for me.
— Todd Swoope (@ToddSwoope) September 22, 2023
“We will email Prime members several weeks before ads are introduced into Prime Video with information on how to sign up for the ad-free option if they would like,” Amazon said in a release.
Streamers have made a slew of changes over the past year.
Disney+ increased prices in August with an ad-free tier of its service for $13.99 monthly and Hulu which is increasing its ad-free tier to $18 per month.
Netflix also infamously cracked down on password sharing by beginning to charge members this year for users who accessed the same account in different households.
HBO Max changed to Max in May and combined with Discovery+ to integrate all content into one uniform streaming platform.
Amazon was up just shy of 12% in a one-year period as of Friday morning.
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