We all know how much fun it is to get heavily invested in a plotline, only to have it be interrupted by a 30-second ad for cleaning products. There is nothing quite as liberating as being interrupted when you are trying to enjoy a movie or TV show, or having a commercial for dish soap appear in the middle of Reacher, which is why Amazon is introducing a new feature called “ads.”
Yes, even though you pay the price for Amazon Prime, the company is rolling out ads for its basic subscription. The streamer announced that starting January 29th, there will be “limited” advertisements in Prime Video movies and TV shows, because there is always time to sell you something if you look hard enough.
If you want to keep your ad-free experience, you still can… for another $2.99 a month. The email that Amazon sent out to customers can be read below:
We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting January 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers. No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership.
We will also offer a new ad-free option for an additional $2.99 per month* that you can sign up for here. Prime Video customers have the option to pre-register for the monthly ad-free option, but won’t be billed until January 29.
Amazon is just the latest of the streamers to introduce ads after Netflix and Hulu recently raised prices for non-ad plans. We are all so close to reinventing cable, but it will be called something cool and hip, like “CBL.” It will be advertised on Amazon!