This won’t be the first time that Prime Video subscribers will see ads. When Amazon acquired the rights to stream Thursday Night Football last year, all live football telecasts blasted ads. They continue to do so to date. In a footnote on its latest service update, Amazon says you will continue to see ads on live content, irrespective of whether you pay more for ad-free watching or stick to the ad-supported Prime subscription package.
Moreover, FreeVee and Twitch are both Amazon-owned platforms, and they’ve had ads for years. Right now, we have no official information on how long the Prime Videos ads will last, nor do we know the exact format. But the assurance that they will be fewer than rival streaming platforms might come as a consolation to concerned subscribers. Amazon won’t be the sole major streaming platform to introduce ads, though.
Netflix and Disney+ push ads, too, and offer ad-free subscription tiers, as well. The only major streaming platform that has remained loyal to a pure subscription format without any ads is Apple. Why did Amazon hike its price and switch to ads? The increasing cost of production. Amazon says it wants to “continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.” After all, spending a billion dollars to produce a single epic show would eventually show itself on the balance sheets.