Amazon confirms extra charge to remove ads from Prime Video. We start from the USA

The advent of streaming has brought about a real Revolution in the way of choosing a film or any other product to watch. Services like Prime Video had proposed themselves to the public as an alternative to traditional televisionproviding access to its catalog at a fixed price and above all without advertising interruptions.

What seemed to be almost one discounted conditioninstead seems to be starting to ”lose ground” compared to a trend diametrically opposite (Netflix in fact has a cheaper plan but with advertising). After the announcement at the end of September, Amazon confirmed to Prime subscribers that its streaming service will soon begin to show some advertisements while playing content.

The communication reached users via an E-Mail and the change will take effect as of from January 29, 2024 in the USA. Subscribers will be able to decide to avoid advertising by paying (obviously) a surcharge equal to $2.99 more per month.

After the United States it will be the turn of the United Kingdom and Germany but the prices for the other markets, including Italy, have yet to be communicated.

Amazon says in the email:

We’re 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 ads. This will allow us to continue to invest in engaging content and continue to grow that investment over a long period of time. We aim to serve significantly fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers. No action is required on your part and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership.

This further price increase will certainly be unpleasant for many of the subscribers to Amazon’s home streaming service, especially after the increase in Prime subscription in 2022.