The other shoe has officially dropped for Amazon Prime subscribers. Beginning January 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include “limited” advertisements.
In an email to its customers, the company said the shift will allow it to “continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.”
The big question for Prime Video customers is just how “limited” those ads will be. Quantitatively, the company didn't say, but qualitatively, it said it aims to have “meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers.” Comparatively, Netflix subscribers have to sit through 4-5 minutes of commercials per hour.
The other part of that question is what if you don’t want those ads? That answer is simple: pay Amazon $2.99 a month by signing up for that option here.
Other than that, no action is required from any subscriber and there’s no change to the current price of Prime memberships.
Access to Prime Video Channels – like Max, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, BET+, MGM+, ViX+, Crunchyroll, PBS KIDS, NBA League Pass, MLB.TV, and STARZ – won’t change either. As things stand, customers only pay for the ones they want and can cancel anytime.