Mere months after Aussies got hit with the first-ever price hike for Amazon Prime, further changes for the streaming service on the cards.
According to a blog post on the Amazon website, "limited" advertisements are coming to Prime Video in early 2024. Initially, this rollout of ads within Prime Video will be exclusive to the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada.
Before you get too excited: Aussies aren't dodging the bullet here. They've just got a little bit longer to get their affairs in order before it happens. If all goes to plan, Prime subscribers in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia will start to see ads sometime later in the year.
Amazon's rationale for these changes hits all the usual notes, citing a need to increase its investment in content for Prime Video going forward.
If you don't want to deal with any ads, I've got some good news for you. Amazon will let you get rid of them if you want to do so badly enough.
Naturally, the wrinkle is that this will cost you extra. In the United States, taking away ads will add an extra $2.99 per month on top of the existing cost of your Prime subscription. International pricing is to be announced.
Though it's nice to have the option to do something about them, the fact that you now have to pay more for an ad-free Amazon Prime makes this something of a stealth price hike. Essentially, Amazon has made the service you were already paying for worse and is asking you for more money to undo those changes.
The only other silver lining here is that Amazon's announcement does come with a pledge to be competitive when it comes to the density and volume of ads found on Prime Video.
"We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers," the company said.
As for what that looks like in practice, we'll have to wait and see. As it stands, Amazon is only one of many streamers who are moving to embrace advertising in the pursuit of greater profitability. Netflix and Disney Plus have both moved to introduce cheaper ad-supporter tiers of their respective services over the last twelve months.
If all these changes have you looking to change up your subscriptions, check out the table below for a round-up of your options when it comes to Australian streaming services.
2 min read
