Amazon Prime Video just got ads — and it's the end of a streaming era

29 Jan 2024

Users who already pay $139 a year for Prime will now get ads on the streaming service.
Ad-free streaming services are officially a thing of the past. Amazon injected Prime Video’s movies and TV shows with ads on Monday. The company is asking users to pay an additional $3 a month to keep Prime Video ad-free, on top of the $139 a year members already pay for Amazon Prime.

“Starting Jan. 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements,” said Amazon in an email to Prime members last month.

With the fall of Prime Video, that means the five largest streaming services in America all have ads now. Amazon is following in the footsteps of Netflix, Disney+, Max, and Paramount+ which all introduced ads in the last few years. Streaming services once offered a strong alternative to cable, but as the landscape has become more competitive, they’ve all resorted to being just like their highly commercialized ancestors.

A key piece of Amazon’s ad model is that they are throwing you into its ad-filled tier as its default when you originally could watch Prime Video with no interruptions. Most competitors haven’t been so brash, and have introduced ads more subtly by offering a cheaper option, like Netflix did at $6.99. However, Amazon is hoping you won’t care, and will just pay the same and go along for the ride, while they make a fortune on advertising to you.