Amazon Prime Video Will Play Advertising And Offer More Expensive Advertising Packages

Amazon Prime Video will show ads on its streaming service. (photo: Twitter @PrimeVideo)

JAKARTA - Amazon Prime Video will join other video streaming competitors next year by introducing ads and introducing more expensive ad-free services, as customers' growth has slowed since the pandemic.

The US technology company announced on Friday 22 September that advertising will be introduced in the US, UK, Germany and Canada in early 2024. Then, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later that year.

Amazon's non-advertising layer will cost an additional USD 2.99 (IDR 46 thousand) per month in the US, where Prime subscriptions currently cost USD 14.99 (IDR 230 thousand) per month or USD 139 (IDR 2.1 million) per year. "The price for other countries will be announced later," the company said.

Netflix and Walt Disney have also taken similar steps, hoping a jump in ad revenues will slow down additional subscribers.

However, growth for ad-supported packages is fairly slow. To increase the number of subscribers of this package, Netflix has stopped basic packages without ads in the US and UK, while Disney has raised prices for no-ad packages.

Amazon already displays ads on live event content such as the NFL's Thursday Night Football, a practice that will continue even though customers have paid for packages without ads, the company said.

The company says it plans to show fewer ads than traditional TVs and other streaming providers, and will not raise prices by 2024 for Prime's existing membership package.

This online retail firm does not explain Prime's membership figures. However, Insider Intelligence estimates that Amazon Prime is the third-largest video streaming platform in the US with 157.3 million subscribers, losing only to YouTube and Netflix.

After two disappointing earnings reports, Amazon reported sales growth and quarterly gains that exceeded expectations in August, thanks to improvements in its two growing machines, e-commerce and cloud computing.