Amazon announces when Prime Video content will begin including ads
Amazon has confirmed when it will begin to include ads on Prime Video content, months after announcing the controversial move.
The e-commerce conglomerate earlier this year said ads would allow it to "continue investing" in content and flagged next year as the beginning of the rollout.
The official date for American users has now been set as January 29, according to media reports by The Business Insider and The Verge.
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Amazon will rollout its ads for users in the US, the UK, Germany and Canada starting January 29. Adobe Stock
The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada will be first to be hit with ads, while Australia, France, Italy, Spain and Mexico will see them later in the year.
Prime members will see no changes to the price of their subscription but ads will automatically be added onto their service, Amazon said earlier this year.
American users can instead choose to opt out of seeing the ads by paying an additional $2.99 a month for an ad-free plan.
"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," Amazon said in September.
There has not yet been an announcement on Australia's launch date or pricing for ads.
Australians can currently access Prime Video under a standard Prime membership for $9.99 a month.
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Prime Video will join Netflix and Binge in offering ads on their service for Australians. Getty Images/iStockphoto
Amazon's Prime Video is the latest streaming service to introduce ads to its viewing experience after Netflix made the move last year.
Australians were met with a new lower-cost "Basic with Ads" plan in November 2022.
Under the service, users paid $6.99 a month for four to five minutes of ads every hour of streaming with a number of movies and shows unavailable due to licensing restrictions.
Netflix consequently axed its standard subscription price of $10.99 a month, bringing up the cost of a basic ad-free plan to $16.99.
Binge also has a "Basic with Ads" plan which it charges Australians $10 a month for with the standard ad-free plan costing $18.
Disney+ and Stan currently do not offer ads on their respective platforms.
Amazon has been contacted for comment.
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