Remember when streaming was supposed to save us from all of those expensive cable and satellite bills and also provide us with everything we wanted to watch without advertising? Well, those days are now gone; over the past couple of years streaming services have both increased their subscription prices as well as introduced new Ad Tiers, which often still require a subscription fee.
Granted, there are still ad-supported streaming services that are completely free, but they don’t provide access to the latest and greatest movies and shows.
And before you get all excited that the WGA Strike has been resolved, remember that the new contracts will likely result in additional increases in monthly streaming costs being passed on to the consumer in order to pay for it all.
Amazon is holding the line on the cost of Prime for now — but you know that the other services will be forced to raise their prices.
Amazon, Say It Isn’t So!
It now appears that Amazon has decided to “join the crowd” and implement a new Ad Tier for Amazon Prime Video. Up until now, Amazon Prime Video has been a no-extra cost benefit for Amazon Prime Members, but going forward that will only apply to the new Ad Tier. If you don’t want to experience advertising it is going to cost you.
Amazon Prime Members will start to see a limited number of Ads creeping into their Prime Video viewing experience in early 2024. Amazon claims that its goal is to have fewer Ads than TV networks and other streaming services (we will see how that will play out over time).
The first countries to be affected will be the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada in early 2024, followed later in the year by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia.
No action is required for Prime members and the current price of Amazon Prime membership will be the same throughout 2024.
The Real Catch
Those who want to watch Amazon Prime Video without Ads will have to fork out an additional $2.99 per month for their Amazon Prime Membership, and those who subscribe to Amazon Prime Video as a standalone service will have to pay the $2.99 more for their monthly subscription.
Tip: Amazon will email Prime members several weeks before ads are introduced into Prime Video with information on how to sign up for the ad-free option if they would like.
UPDATE 12/28/2023: Amazon has sent out emails to Amazon Prime subscribers that starting January 29 (2024), Prime Video movies and TV shows will include Ads.
Trying To Soften The Blow
Amazon has not officially stated that the Ad Tier will have a more limited content selection as some other streaming services do – we will have to wait and see. In the meantime, here is what Amazon hopes this time that Prime Video Viewers will take into consideration, even when viewing Ads:
Shows
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
- The Boys
- Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
- Citadel
- The Wheel of Time
- Reacher
- The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Blockbuster Movies
- Air
- Creed III
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Candy Cane Lane with Eddie Murphy
Sports
- NFL Thursday Night Football
Prime Video Channels
This provides access to other subscription channels like MAX, discovery+, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, BET+, MGM+, ViX+, PBS KIDS, NBA League Pass, MLB.TV, and STARZ—with no extra apps to download, and no cable required. Customers only pay for the ones they want and can cancel anytime.
Other Amazon Prime Member Benefits
Of course, Amazon doesn’t want you to forget some other other core Prime Member Benefits beyond Amazon Prime Video:
Entertainment
Ad-free listening of 2 million songs, thousands of stations and playlists, and thousands of podcasts with Amazon Music.
Free games with Prime Gaming.
Prime Reading with access to over 3,000 books and magazines.
Unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos
Delivery
Grocery delivery and pickup from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market in more than 5,000 cities and towns.
Free Same-Day Delivery on hundreds of thousands of items in over 90 major metropolitan areas.
Free One-Day Delivery on more than 20 million items coast to coast.
Fast, free delivery on prescriptions from Amazon Pharmacy and prescription savings at more than 60,000 participating pharmacies in the U.S.
This story is definitely not over…
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September 27, 2023 at 3:50 am
“A long time ago in a Fallacy far, far away”…
Yeah. How doth he dood it again? Creativity in action sans the lights and camera. Talent on loan from Zod?
Well now, I refuse to watch commercials and I ain’t gonna pay extry to avoid ’em. I have spAmazon’s Music Funlimited and still have “Max” (stoopid “name” that one!) and “Dizkney”. For now.
“The Weasel of Time” is getting weirder and weirder as opposed to me becoming curiouser and curiouser. I long stopped viewing “The Goys” as I find it patently offensive. Not “broffensive” but genuinely, predictably, offensive. I ain’t watchin’ that crap any more. Seth Rogain can choke on a woke wienerschitzle for all I care.
“The Rangz of Powah” is patently (there’s that word again!) woke and stoopid at the same time. Per Tolkien’s text, Dwarfish (no, not smaller fishes, my precious!) womens were rarely seen and with good reason. They gotses beardses…and worsers.
Thank you for alerting me (the world needses more alertses!) as I will now also refuse to buy the new and simproved spAmazon Fire Stick thingy. Also I will not be buying a new Visio Pro TV as I do not want to have buy it from spAmazon. Talk about adding insult to insult?!
If I am paying for a service I do not expect to be farced into paying for commercials. I subscribe to avoid fAd Copy. I will just not watch anything spAMAZON Prymed proffers. I can be quite a stubborn individual.
I used (when occasionally asked!) to write Taglines for my wife as she was in advertising. Hard to believe that one such as I could dull the rapier (relax spazzoid people, it’s a pointy sword!) of my wit long enough to compose honest, insightful and truthful sloganese. But I could. Some times. Occasionally. Yuppers!
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into streaming…spAmazon goes commercial!
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