By Jorge Vazquez
Sep 23, 2023, 11:44 AM EDT
Starting in 2024, Amazon will pocket new revenue from users who want to avoid commercials while streaming shows and movies.
The tech giant announced that early next year, its Prime Video service will “include limited ads,” as rivals Netflix and Max do, in their never-ending search for advertising to attract additional revenue.
Those who do not want to pay for not seeing advertising will have to pay an additional $2.99 each month or an extra $35.88 per year.
“To continue investing in great content and continue to increase that investment for a long time, in early 2024, Prime Video will include limited ads in its shows and movies,” the company says in a statement to users.
“Our goal is to have much fewer ads than free-to-air television channels and other streaming services. No action is required from Prime members. We will make no changes in 2024 to the current Prime membership price. We will also offer a new ad-free option and share pricing for other countries at a later date,” says the message from the company led by CEO Andy Jassy.
According to the message, Amazon will send an email to Prime members several weeks before ads are introduced on Prime Video with information on how to subscribe to Prime for the ad-free option, should they wish to do so.
Amazon reminds its customers that since it launched Prime in 2005, it has been improving the program and increasing the list of benefits that members who enjoy it: “You can count on us to continue adding benefits and features over time.”
In its latest quarterly report for 2023, Amazon surprised with revenue increasing 11% to $134.4 billion, its fastest pace of earnings since its fourth-quarter 2020 report.
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