The golden age of video streaming services is quickly coming to an end. It was an age where subscription fees were affordable, plans were sharable, and content was ad-free. But starting today, one of the last video streaming services that didn’t show advertisements to viewers is jumping on the ad bandwagon.
Subscribers to both the individual Amazon Prime Video streaming service and the Amazon Prime membership (which includes access to Prime Video) will now see ads served to them when they stream movies or television shows on Prime.
Back in September, Amazon announced that the service would be moving to an ad-supported model and today (Monday, January 29) is when this switch will occur for U.S. subscribers. Now for the same price you were paying for an ad-free experience—$8.99 per month for Prime Video subscribers and $14.99 per month for Prime subscribers—you’ll be getting ads where before there were none.
Amazon will still give subscribers the ability to view content without advertisements, but you’ll need to pay $2.99 per month extra for the privilege. That means the ad-free Amazon Prime Video plan now costs $11.98 per month and the Amazon Prime membership with ad-free Prime Video now costs $17.98 per month.
In its September statement on the change, Amazon said its reason for adding ads to Prime Video was so it has a new revenue stream that can help the company “continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.”
Still, the announcement roiled Prime Video subscribers who previously viewed Amazon Prime Video as one of the last bastions of the golden age of streaming due to its ad-free experience for no extra cost.
Now that Amazon Prime Video has switched over to being an ad-supported streaming service for entry-level paying subscribers, there is only one major streaming service left that does not force ads on users who pay for subscriptions: Apple TV Plus.
Currently, Netflix, Hulu, Max, Peacock, Disney Plus, and Paramount Plus all include ads on their cheapest paid plans.
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