Unhappy with the rising cost of watching the handful of programs you enjoy on an over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platform, or perhaps Thursday Night Football? Now, you’ll be paying to watch that content with limited commercials … unless you’re willing to pay more to erase the spots.
Prime Video subscribers on December 28 received an email from Amazon notifying them that, starting January 29, 2024, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include “limited” advertisements.
Why the change in tune for the Big Tech goliath siphoning ad dollars from broadcast media for the last several years?
“This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time,” Prime Video explains.
Of course, there is a caveat: “We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers,” it explains.
Those with a Prime membership will continue to have access to TNF and such shows as Upload. But, to view them commercial-free, a new ad-free option for an additional $2.99 per month is being introduced. But, this does not include live event content such as sports and any content delivered through the Amazon Freevee service.
Will consumers pay roughly $36 more per year to Amazon to get their programs free of commercials, which has been the standard delivery method since its inception?
“Prime is a very compelling value,” Amazon says.
Amazon Prime costs $139 per year; Prime Video membership is $8.99 per month.
