Amazon Prime Video will be the next streaming platform to introduce ad-supported content, following in the footsteps of major rivals such as Netflix, Disney+ and Max.
The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, and Amazon later confirmed this. But how will that affect the current pricing and content on the platform?
Here is what we know so far. You can also check out everything we know about the end of password sharing on Netflix.
Is there a release date for the Amazon Prime Video ad-supported tier?
Amazon has confirmed that ads will land on Prime Video “starting in 2024”. However, we don’t know which countries will get them first.
We should learn more in the coming months.
How much could the Amazon Prime Video ad-supported tier cost?
Amazon will be integrating ads into its current Amazon Prime subscription (priced at $14.99/£8.99 per month for full prime, and $8.99/£5.99 per month for just Prime Video) and making ad-free viewing an additional cost per month. However, we don’t yet know what the price of that will be.
From a business perspective, this makes sense – considering that the ad-free price of some rival subscriptions is more than Amazon’s entire Prime membership, which also offers free delivery, access to flash sales and more.
The exact pricing of an ad-free tier is not known, but generally a $5/£4 price jump per month seems around the average cost on other platforms. Of course, this is all speculation. We should hopefully learn more in the coming months.
Amazon confirmed that it will email members a few weeks before the ads are introduced, and offer them the option to sign up for the pricier ad-free tier. Customers won’t need to do anything if they don’t want to.
What could the ads on Prime Video entail?
Amazon has stated this it is aiming “…to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers”.
For reference, Max offers three to four minutes of ads per hour, whilst Disney aims for an average of four minutes.
WSJ also claims that the new ad-free tier could offer other features besides ad-free viewing. Whilst we don’t know specifics, it could follow Netflix and Max’s models and split content into different streaming qualities – with 4K content only available on the highest tier. Alternatively, premium users may get TV shows and films not available on the standard tiers.
What about Amazon Freevee?
Amazon already has another ad-supported service called Freevee, which is a free, ad-supported platform for everyone (not just Prime subscribers), with a curated selection of content.
However, Amazon will mostly likely want to keep its biggest shows (The Boys, Good Omens and The Rings of Power) behind a paywall – so we doubt there’s any chance of these moving to Freevee.
