Amazon to clutter Prime Video shows and movies with 'limited' ads

Amazon has become the latest major streaming service to insert ads into its baseline subscription offering.

Amazon will soon add more ads to Prime Video, the streaming service that is built in for Amazon Prime subscribers and offered as a standalone subscription.

Starting in 2024, Prime Video shows and movies will include "limited advertisements," Amazon announced Friday in this blog post. Amazon said it's a necessary move for the company if it's to continue investing in "compelling content" over the long haul.

Amazon is promising a light ad load. "We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers," Amazon explained, but didn't elaborate on how many ads per hour to expect when the capability is launched.

Ads in Prime Video are set to launch in the US, UK, Germany and Canada in early 2024, followed by launches in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia later in the year.

Amazon, which acquired MGM studios in 2022, is not changing the price of Prime membership, but it will now cost US subscribers an additional $2.99 per month for an ad-free version of Prime Video. Costs for the ad-free option in other countries will be announced later. Amazon will alert Prime subs via email "several weeks" before ads are launched on Prime Video shows and movies and provide a way for them to take the ad-free option.

Related:Amazon's 'Freevee' rebrand arrives amid 'wide open' market for free streaming

More Amazon ads

The move is Amazon's latest into the advertising world of streaming. It presumably has the architecture and operational capabilities to quickly bring more ad support to Prime Video. Amazon already inserts ads into its streaming coverage of Thursday night National Football League games, though Amazon's lackluster streaming performance of live NFL games has left some consumers and industry-watchers wanting.

Amazon also operates Freevee, a free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service that was relaunched and rebranded in the spring of 2022.

'Sorta shocked' at Amazon's approach

Amazon's move follows a trend. Most major, general entertainment subscription streaming services, including Disney+, Max, Hulu, Paramount+ and Peacock, all provide an ad-supported option in some shape or form. One key difference is that existing Prime Video users will need to pony up a bit more to continue to get the ad-free experience they've been getting for years.

The way Amazon is forcing existing Prime members into an ad-supported experience unless they pay more has raised some eyebrows. For example, LightShed Partners' Richard Greenfield posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he's "sorta shocked" at how Amazon is introducing Prime Video with ads.

Related:Netflix with ads to launch in a dozen countries in November