SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon Prime Video will show advertisements during movies and TV shows from January 29, as it aims to expand its ad business and increase revenue from entertainment.
Prime Video customers will have the option of paying an additional $2.99 per month to avoid limited ads. The company said that this move will allow it “to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.”
In an email sent to customers, Amazon said the company aims to have “meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers”. “No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership,” the company wrote in the email.
Amazon Prime currently costs $14.99 each month or $139 annually. Prime Video can be subscribed to individually for $8.99 per month.
“We will also offer a new ad-free option for an additional $2.99 per month,” said the company. The new charge for ad-free streaming would bring Prime to just under $18, and would push standalone Prime Video to just under $12, reports The Verge.
The move comes as rival streaming services continue to raise subscription rates and push ads. Disney Plus, Hulu, Max, Netflix, and Paramount Plus all include ads on their most affordable tiers. Amazon spent more than $7 billion last year on Amazon Originals, live sports programming and licensed third-party video content offered as part of Prime.