Amazon has confirmed that it will begin showing ads on Prime Video beginning January 29th, 2024. While Amazon had already confirmed ads were coming to Prime Video, when exactly the change was due to take place remained unclear.
According to Amazon, the addition of limited advertisements “will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.”
Although it is possible to sign up to a standalone Prime Video subscription, most users of the video streaming service likely have access as a free benefit with their Prime membership. For those that don’t mind the introduction of ads, this change might not matter all that much.
However, for those that do want to maintain access to an ad-free viewing experience, they will soon be required to pay an additional $2.99 a month fee to remain ad-free.
Beginning Jan. 29, all existing Prime Video users will automatically become ‘with ads’ users, with the option to pay more to remove the ads again. For those that would like to upgrade before the change takes place, it is already possible to pre-order ad-free Prime Video. Once pre-ordered, the user will be charged the additional $2.99 add-on fee on January 29, and every month after that until canceled.
While it is still unclear just how intrusive the ads will be, Amazon does say that it intends to offer a lighter ad load in general, and compared to other streaming services. In Amazon’s own words, “we aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers.”
After upgrading to ad-free, some content will still include advertisements, just like it does now. For example, ads will still be shown during live events and content, including sports, as well as when watching any of the Amazon Freevee content available on Prime Video.
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