Amazon Prime Video will introduce ads in the US on January 29 and in more countries in February and later in 2024, unless you pay an additional $3, €3, or £3 per month for the ad-free plan.
While Netflix became more affordable with the introduction of ads, Amazon is taking a different approach by intending to show ads to everyone with a Prime Video subscription, unless you act.
Now, we have a price and a start date. The change will occur in the US on January 29 and follow in the UK, Germany, and Canada on February 5. Ads will be introduced in Australia, France, Italy, Mexico, and Spain later in 2024.
- "Starting January 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. 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 wrote in an email to customers.
Unless you pay more
To continue enjoying Amazon Prime Video without ads, you will need to pay an additional $3, €3, or £3 per month for the new ad-free plan. Live events and sports will still have ads.
The change amounts to a 33% price increase, taking ad-free Prime Video from $9 to $12 per month. It will also make ad-free Prime Video more expensive than Apple TV+, which is currently the cheapest major streaming service and the only one without ads.
Ad-free Prime Video with the other Prime benefits will increase from $15 to $18 per month.
This move follows Amazon's plan to introduce more ads in the Fire TV user interface.
Also read: Fire TV is getting search ads and non-entertainment banner ads
You can cancel Amazon Prime before the change by going to the Amazon Prime website -> Update -> Cancel, or you can sign up for the ad-free plan here.
