Who doesn’t love commercials?
If the answer is “you,” I have bad news. Well, sort of. The Wall Street Journal(opens in a new tab) reported that Amazon is in the early stages of talks to potentially create an ad-supported tier of Prime Video. The service, which currently costs $9/mo on its own or can be had as part of the larger $140/yr Prime package, is ad-free outside of certain content like NFL games.
These talks are apparently early enough that the WSJ report doesn’t include any info about pricing. There are a few hints as to what Amazon might do, such as the suggestion that the company could introduce ads to the base subscription and charge more to get rid of them. However, Amazon could also do what Netflix and Disney+ recently did and introduce a cheaper ad-supported tier.
Per WSJ’s report, this could also not happen at all. That’s how preliminary these talks are at the moment.
Amazon reportedly made $9.5 billion from ad revenue in the first quarter of the year, a substantial increase over the previous year. That number would obviously jump even higher if Prime Video had ads. Amazon seems to be in an interesting spot regarding what to do with Prime, as another recent rumor suggested the company could offer cheap or free cell service with a Prime subscription.
Though there’s a chance this winds up not happening, it’s probably best to get used to the idea that ad-free streaming could one day be a thing of the past.
