Amazon Prime Video has become the latest streaming service to add adverts. It will follow Disney Plus (in the US), Netflix and Max to bring ads from early next year. If you want to avoid them, you'll have to pay extra.
That means the price of Prime Video won't change, but you will have to put up with adverts. Avoiding them brings a $2.99-a-month surcharge – international pricing is yet to be announced. Live events like sports will continue to have ads even if you pay the extra fee.
Amazon claims the move is necessary to increase investment in original content without putting up the price. It says it will "aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers."
The US, UK, Germany and Canada will be the first countries to see ads on Prime Video early in 2024. France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia will follow later that year.
Netflix introduced adverts last year. The ad-supported tier includes four to five minutes of adverts per hour of programming, each 15 to 30 seconds in length and playing before and during TV shows and movies. Disney soon followed suit, though only in the US for now. Disney is also following Netflix in cracking down on password sharing.
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