Amazon has decided to include advertisements to its Prime Video service in 2024, as the company seeks to make profit after the coronavirus pandemic triggered a decrease in subscriber growth.
The tech giant reported on Friday, 22nd September, that Prime Video services in the US, the UK, Germany and Canada will begin getting ads in early 2024. France, Mexico, Spain, Italy, and Australia will follow later in the year.
A Prime Video subscription costs $14.99 per month or $139 a year in the US. Viewers in the US who want an ad-free experience will have to pay a $2.99 per month, or $35.88 annually. Amazon has yet to release the prices for other countries.
Amazon’s decision places it alongside rivals, Netflix and Walt Disney, who have resorted to similar methods of ad revenue to make up for slowing subscription rates. Netflix and Disney have even gone further to boost their revenue, with Netflix cancelling its basic commercial-free plan in the US and UK. Disney, however, has increased prices for its ad-free tiers.
Amazon’s ad-free plan will not affect ads shown during live events like the NFL’s matches. Amazon stated that viewers who pay for the ad-free option will still have to watch ads during the live events.
Amazon reportedly ended 2022 with a Prime membership number of 168 million, according to Business Insider. Despite this, the company reported experiencing disappointing earnings earlier this year. August brought better news, with Amazon reporting higher quarterly sales growth and profit than expected.
This comes on the back of an improvement in e-commerce and cloud-computing, both of which are Amazon’s main growth engines. The company reported its shares to be 0.8% higher in pre-market trading on Friday.
