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Amazon has officially joined the ranks of companies that advertise on streaming services.
Users watching Prime Video content in the U.S. will automatically start seeing “exclusive” ads on Monday, about four months after the e-commerce giant first signaled its plans. Ads will start running in other countries as well.
US users will have to pay a monthly fee of $2.99 to get an ad-free Prime Video streaming experience instead of the default. This is on top of his $14.99 per month for the entire Prime membership, or his $8.99 for Prime Video alone.
Amazon notifies Prime Video users that advertising will start on January 29th
Starting in 2022, Amazon is keeping the price of Prime at $14.99 per month for those who don’t upgrade without ads.
The company says Amazon Prime Video will include ads starting next year, but a new ad-free plan will also be available. (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)/Getty Images)
Ads will continue to appear at live events and in the Amazon Freevee program, regardless of which subscription a user has, the company said on its website.
CEO Andy Jassy said in late October that Prime Video “remains an integral part of Prime’s value proposition and is often one of the top two drivers of customers signing up for Prime.” .
| ticker | safety | last | change | change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | Amazon.com Inc. | 161.26 | +2.14 | +1.34% |
Amazon, like other companies with streaming platforms, cited advertising as a reason to continue investing in content. Companies also use advertising to increase revenue from streaming.
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Max, Netflix, and Disney+ are among the platforms that have debuted ad-supported memberships so far.
A bowl of popcorn and a TV remote on the coffee table. Netflix is streaming on the TV in the background. Photographed on March 6, 2020. (Photo credit: Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Some streaming services have increased prices for ad-free options or taken other steps to try to get users to increasingly accept ad-supported plans.
In this photo illustration, the logos of media service providers Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney + and Hulu are displayed on a television screen in Paris, November 20, 2019. (Photo Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Netflix has been particularly successful in its ad-supported tier. The company restricts account sharing outside the household and expanded this option to certain countries in November 2022.
The streaming giant announced earlier this month that it had reached 23 million monthly active users on ad-supported plans. From the third quarter to the last quarter of 2023, the number of subscriptions in this tier increased by nearly 70%.
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“Our goal is to make advertising a more substantial source of revenue and contribute to sustainable and healthy revenue growth in 2025 and beyond,” Netflix said in a statement.
Eric Revell contributed to this report.
