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New year, new rules. The days of ad-free content on Amazon Prime Video are coming to an unfortunate end as the streamer is set to introduce commercials to shows and movies in 2024. The platform will now join Disney+, Netflix and Hulu in providing different tiers for users.
In an email sent out earlier this week, Prime Video notified subscribers of the upcoming changes, which will officially go into place Jan. 29.
“We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers,” Prime wrote in the email, per USA Today. “No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership.”
Prime Video is currently available to purchase as a stand-alone service for $8.99 per month — or it’s included as part of the $14.99 you pay each month as an Amazon Prime subscriber. While the price won’t change when advertisements go into effect, subscribers will be able to upgrade to an ad-free plan for an additional $2.99 per month. Pre-registration is currently available, though users will not be billed until Jan. 29.
The good news? Not everything will contain ads. While shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty and Reacher might have some commercial breaks, anything that is rented or purchased through the platform will remain ad-free. Meanwhile, live events like Thursday Night Football have always had ads and will continue in the same manner.
The news of Prime Video adding commercials and advertisements was first introduced in September, though they did not specify when it would go into effect at the time. According to Amazon, they decided to make the change “to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time,” per People.
Prime Video isn’t the only platform to make the switch. Earlier this year, Netflix began charging $6.99 per month for streaming with ads and $15.49 per month for a standard subscription without ads. They also started requiring an additional $7.99 per month for users who want to share accounts with someone who lives in a separate house.
