- Amazon Prime Video adds ads
- £2.99/month to remove ads
- Some users threaten cancellation
Subscriptions to Amazon Prime Video in the United Kingdom will now be interrupted by advertisements during streaming.
Starting immediately, advertisements will be shown to all subscribers of the streaming service unless they pay an additional £2.99 per month.
Amazon has confirmed that these will play before, during, and after movies and television programmes. This causes the same level of disruption as standard commercial breaks.
Ads have been visible to subscribers in the United States for the past week, and the update is nearly ready to be implemented in additional countries.
Customers in the United Kingdom have reacted angrily to the change on social media, with one stating, “I already pay more than £100 for Prime and will cancel it when my subscription expires.”
How can one determine if they are affected?
The sole change for UK Amazon Prime Video customers is the addition of ads.
Amazon Prime subscribers are granted access to Prime Video at no extra charge as part of their membership.
Last September, Amazon hinted at these changes, but buyers merely received email confirmation.
Amazon verified via email that Prime membership prices will not change and no additional action is needed.
Subscribers in the United Kingdom will continue to pay the service’s monthly fee of £8.99 or annual fee of £95.
Amazon stated in an email to customers, “Prime Video television shows and films will contain limited advertisements.”
We aim to have significantly fewer advertisements than other streaming TV providers and linear television.
Consequently, Amazon has confirmed that advertisements will appear at the start, middle, and end of each programme.
This is in line with the introduction of advertisements on other widely used streaming platforms, including Netflix.
Instead of incorporating advertisements as standard, Netflix introduced a £4.99 per month tier that included advertisements and was available for subscribers to purchase.
Similarly, Disney+ launched an advertising tier in November 2022, charging £4.99 per month. This was first for users in the United States and then eight other European countries, including the United Kingdom.
How do you eliminate advertisements?
An additional charge is required to avoid advertisements while watching one’s favourite show or film.
Prime members pay £2.99 per month or £35.88 per year to remove the advertisements.
Therefore, an Amazon Prime Video subscription will cost just under £12 per month.
This is more expensive than a Premium Disney+ account or a standard Netflix account, both of which exclude advertisements and cost £10.99 per month.
Select ‘Go Ad-Free’ from the ‘Account & Settings’ page on Amazon Prime to enable ad-free viewing.
This will remove advertisements from all Amazon Prime Video profiles linked to your Amazon account.
Amazon unfortunately states that this will not remove all advertisements.
Some titles will still feature “promotional trailers that appear before a movie or television programme,” which cannot be avoided with an ad-free paid subscription.
Furthermore, advertisements will continue to be included in live events, including sports fixtures, as well as any content available through Amazon Freevee.
Many Amazon Prime members have expressed on social media their unwillingness to pay an additional fee to block advertisements from the service.
“Take a step towards financial freedom – claim your free Webull shares now!”
“Amazon Prime just asked me if I wanted advertisements or to pay an additional $2.99,” one X subscriber wrote.
I’m not sure how many advertisements you’ve included in your streaming service in an attempt to coerce me into upgrading to an AD-FRIENDLY plan, but it won’t work.
Some subscribers have even stated that the inclusion of advertisements will compel them to cancel the service entirely.
“At my next annual renewal, I will not be renewing Prime,” one commenter stated emphatically.
Another user said, “Amazon Prime is an already subpar streaming service; charging subscribers for an ad-free experience will surely end it.”
