Amazon will increase the cost of its Prime program for United Kingdom subscribers.
Monthly memberships will increase by £1 to £8.99 in September, while yearly memberships will increase from £79 to £95.
Amazon stated that the price increase was the first in the United Kingdom since 2014 and was the result of “increasing inflation and operations costs.”
Netflix and other providers have upped their subscription fees in response to rising costs.
Prime services provide unlimited product delivery and entertainment streaming.
Amazon stated that the new cost will go into effect in September, or at the customer’s next membership renewal date, adding that customers can also convert to an annual plan or terminate their membership.
Expanded competition in the entertainment streaming sector has increased the number of services available to consumers, resulting in competitive pricing.
However, rising production costs are exerting pressure amidst record-high UK inflation of 9.4 percent.
According to a new study, the growing cost of living in the United Kingdom has caused households to abandon their streaming subscriptions.
Amazon stated that it had invested billions of pounds in original shows such as The Terminal List and Clarkson’s Farm over the past few years.
It is also investing millions in sports, including winning the rights to broadcast Champions League football games on Tuesday nights beginning in 2024.
It already owns exclusive rights to 20 Premier League matches per season, including the whole round of Boxing Day matches every year. And it has an exclusive five-year contract to broadcast the US Open tennis competition in the United Kingdom.
The price increase follows months of price increases for Netflix’s plans in 2021 and 2022. In the three months leading up to July, it was anticipated that an additional two million customers would leave.
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, lockdowns led to increases in subscriptions for platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime. However, according to researchers at Kantar, the proportion of consumers planning to cancel subscriptions, citing “wanting to save money” as the primary reason, has reached an all-time high.
