Amazon’s Prime Video will start serving ads on January 29 unless you pay extra

Amazon has started notifying Prime Video subscribers that they have to pay extra if they don’t want their viewing experience interrupted by commercials. In an email the company has sent to customers, it said that it will start showing “limited advertisements” with its service’s movies and shows starting on January 29. Those who want to keep their accounts ad-free will have to pay an extra fee of $3 a month on top of their Prime subscription or their standalone $9-a-month Prime Video membership. 

The company first announced that it was going to serve ads with its content — and that the initial regions to be affected are the US, UK, Germany and Canada — back in September. Customers in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia will have to make the decision whether to endure the advertisements it serves or pay extra by late next year. Amazon mentioned back then that it’s aiming to “have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers.” While “meaningfully fewer” is pretty vague, Variety said at the time that four minutes per hour seemed to be the lowest amount of ad time for a streaming platform. 

Amazon reiterated that goal …read more