Prime Video to start playing ads on January 29

Netflix was the revolutionary streamer that brought movies and TV to a massive audience in an ultra-convenient fashion. As with any business model, things evolve for better and for worse. Netflix started raising their prices, so others followed suit. Netflix started cracking down on passwords, and now Disney+ will follow suit. Netflix added a tiered model to their options, which allowed ads to be played on content, and now Deadline reports that Amazon’s Prime Video service will be instituting ads on their streaming platform starting on January 29.

While this was announced back in September, Amazon has now unveiled the date that the new viewing structure will take effect. According to Deadline, in a letter that was sent to their subscribers,
“We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting January 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim 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. We will also offer a new ad-free option for an additional $2.99 per month* that you can sign up for here. Prime Video customers have the option to pre-register for the monthly ad-free option, but won’t be billed until January 29.”

The only caveats that have been announced are that, “There will not be ads on content that is purchased or rented” and “Customers in Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the Mariana Islands will not see ads rolled out.”

Netflix’s tiered model which included one that allowed ads to be played was followed by Disney+. As Prime Video joins the others, AppleTV+ becomes the sole streaming service that remains to feature a classic subscription-based viewing plan. Amazon had previously reaped the benefits of advertisements that accompanied its broadcast of live sports in addition to the ad-supported Prime Video related platforms such as Freevee and Twitch. The company would take in $38 billion from those ads which contributed to the $502 billion in total annual revenue.