films and series
Prime Video: Amazon’s streaming service gets advertising – or becomes 3 euros more expensive
Amazon interrupts the program: advertising in the middle of exciting films or series can be irritating
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Amazon Prime Video receives advertising – even for viewers with an ongoing subscription. If you want to free yourself from the ads, you have to pay extra.
Just when you think that streaming can’t get any more expensive, annoying, complicated or disruptive, some of the countless providers still have an ace up their sleeve. This time it hits customers of one of the largest streaming portals – Amazon Prime Video.
Amazon writes on a corresponding note Supply side: “Prime movies and series will begin showing a limited number of ads starting February 5th. Pre-order the ad-free version to watch the titles without ads.” Until now, advertisements were only part of the daily routine as part of live TV, Freevee and channel bookings.
Amazon had already communicated the change in September (you can find out more here), but has not yet mentioned any specific costs. Even back then, people were looking for explanatory words and justified the step by saying that they could “offer even more fantastic content for Prime members”.
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Amazon subscription with no advertising is up to 40 percent more expensive
If you don’t want to be interrupted in the future, you will have to pay 2.99 euros in addition to the usual Prime subscription fees (currently 8.99 euros per month or 89.90 euros annually without special conditions). The annual subscription, provided you don’t want to see any advertising, increases to 125.78 euros – an increase of around 40 percent.
Anyone who pays monthly and buys advertising freedom pays around 33 percent more. 8.99 euros becomes 11.98 euros, which would mean 143.76 euros annually.
The form and quantity of advertisements is unknown
There is currently no official information on how Amazon will display the advertising breaks. It is therefore unclear whether there will be interruptions in the middle of exciting scenes, or whether the advertising will only be shown before or after a completed episode or film. The current wording leaves enough room for interpretation, because the “few advertisements” should be displayed “in Prime films and series”. So it could also be so-called “overlay” advertising that is displayed while the streaming content continues. This is particularly well known from the sports programs on private broadcasters.
Future advertising freedom can already be pre-ordered from Amazon. The customer accounts will then be charged with the corresponding additional contributions from February 5th.