In June this year, it was reported that Amazon would use its paid subscription Prime Video audio and video serviceAdded ad-supported version, in order to attract more people to use this service, Amazon earlier confirmed that it will insert advertisements into the Prime Video audio and video service from January 2024, 1. If current subscribers want to avoid advertising interference, they must pay an additional US$29 per month.
Such an adjustment is obviously a disguised increase in the subscription fee for Prime Video's audio-visual service, and the current subscription plan will be changed to a service option that uses advertising content to share the playback costs.
In addition to the fact that users in the United States will see interspersed advertisements in the service starting January 1, Prime Video services in the United Kingdom and Germany will begin to show advertising content on February 29.
In addition, even if users pay an additional $2.99 to "upgrade" to the ad-free version, ads will still appear when watching live events and other content through the Prime Video video service, but there will be no advertising interference when watching general on-demand video content.
Following Netflix and Disney, Amazon has also begun to include advertisements in its streaming video service to share the playback costs. The main reason is that as the number of users of streaming video services increases, the cost of playing video content also increases, forcing many companies to balance their profits by adjusting subscription fees.
Amazon emphasized that the amount of advertisements interspersed in its service content will be less than that of its competitors, but there will obviously still be a certain amount of advertisements that affect the viewing experience. Otherwise, users will pay more to avoid advertising interference.
Since introducing advertising is a trend in the streaming industry, with Amazon following suit after Disney (DIS-US) and Netflix (NFLX-US), this move is unlikely to significantly change the industry landscape.
Prior to this, Amazon had adjusted the subscription fee for its Prime Video audio and video service, increasing it from the original US$12.99 to US$14.99, but since the price increase was announced in February 2022, it has not actually changed again.
