The days of ad-free Amazon Prime Video content are over!
This is not the best news for Amazon Prime Video users. Amazon Video is throwing in some ads starting on February 5th 2024, to go with our movies and shows. I know, I know – ads are the last thing we signed up for, right?
So, here's the deal: apparently, this move is Amazon's way of raking in a little more cash to invest in "compelling content." Translation? They want to make us sit through ads to fund stuff we were already enjoying. Not great!
It's being marketed as it's a good thing, promising fewer ads than regular TV. But come on, we all know that's not saying much. We signed up knowing we were going to be able to enjoy an ad-free video streaming service on top of the usual Prime benefits, and that's being whipped away from us!
The kicker? No change to our Prime membership cost – yet. But, and there's always a "but," they're dangling an ad-free option for an extra £2.99 a month.
£2.99 isn't the end of the world for uninterrupted movies and TV shows; it works out at about 10p extra per day, but it does mean that if you accept the new charge, you'll be paying Amazon an extra £35.88 a year for the same content you got until now!
I still think it is ok value for money. I've seen a lot of people saying they are going to cancel their Amazon account, and I get it, but if you are happy to see a few adverts then stick with the Amazon subscription as is, but looking at how much money I've saved in December alone on shipping charges, by purchasing items from Amazon rather than its competition and how many movies I've watched over the last year, ad-free, on demand, I guess I'm going to suck up that £2.99 and continue with ad-free telly. I'm not happy about it, but being my favourite show on TV is Reacher, which is exclusive to Prime, and I would hate to have adverts spoiling the show for me; I'm paying my £2.99, in the hope that it means my £2.99 might be invested into more seasons of Reacher or invested in equally quality programming!
I've also just discovered the Amazon Prime Reading service, which allows you to read books and magazines for free using the free Kindle app, which somehow I hadn't noticed before, and I'm enjoying this, which does add to the value of the Prime subscription for me, so I think I'm still getting decent value for money, but that said, Amazon I don't want to see an increase in my Amazon subscription later in the year as well; I shan't be happy!