Pay your subscription, then pay $2.99 more for an ad-less experience: or say hello to Prime Video ads in 2024!

There’s a new piece written by Amazon Staff. So it begins: “When we launched Prime in 2005, the first benefit we announced to members was…”, but life is short and we’ll cut straight to the chase.

The fifth-largest company by market cap – Amazon ($1.35 T) – is giving you the opportunity to watch ad-less content on its Prime Video platform for an extra $2.99/month on top of your current Prime Video subscription plan (via Android Authority).

That’s because you’re correct not to be naive when it comes to streaming services’ price hikes: sooner or later, they materialize. Amazon just announced that “starting in early 2024, Prime Video shows and movies will include limited advertisements”. They are lining up with the rest of them: Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, and more services that are offering both ad-supported streaming plans, as well as ad-free plans.

Amazon’s change will affect users in the US, UK, Canada and Germany first, followed by those in Australia, France, Italy, Mexico, and Spain later in 2024.

The $2.99 ad-less fee is currently announced as planned for the U.S. Prime Video members – Amazon will share pricing for other countries later when all the right calculations have been done. “We will email Prime members several weeks before ads are introduced into Prime Video with information on how to sign up for the ad-free option if they would like”, the Amazon Staff promises.

The reason Amazon is doing this is: “To continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time”.