TV stopped being what it was to be what it was again. The Netflixs and HBOs of the world showed us the miracle of “watch (almost) what you want, whenever you want, wherever you want” and transformed the audiovisual experience. After a period of spectacular growth came competition and problems. And to save the furniture, Netflix was the first to take the leap and announce a more affordable plan, but with advertising. Others like HBO have not been slow to follow these steps, and we have the latest example in Amazon.
Prime Video with ads. Amazon has announced plans to start running “limited ads” in its movies and television series. Prime Video users in the US, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada will begin to see advertising in these contents “in early 2024.”
Spain will go behind. Although the measure will be activated first in those four countries, Amazon highlights that these countries will be followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia “later in the year.”
If you put up with the ads, you won’t have to pay more. At Amazon they explain that they will not make changes to the current price of the Prime subscription in 2024, but of course, that is for those who support ads in these audiovisual contents. You don’t want ads? Easy: pay more.
Pay to avoid ads. If you want an ad-free experience, Amazon will offer “a new ad-free option for $2.99 more per month for Prime members in the US.” This option will also be offered in other countries later, although they do not specify what the extra amount will be in those countries. It should be noted that the Prime subscription in the United States costs $139 per year or $14.99 per month.
Prime will notify you of the change. The company indicates that it will send an email to all Prime subscribers “several weeks before ads are introduced on Prime Video,” and will include information on how to sign up for the ad-free plan if they wish.
Streaming is flooded with advertising. Netflix’s stock market crash in April 2022 triggered a radical change in the company. The plan with advertisements is working well, but the company has recovered some of the ground it lost on the stock market. In the end, they are all following this trend: HBO Max activated them in the US in 2021, Paramount+ and Peacock also have rates with advertising, and Disney+ opened up to that option in March 2022. TV, we insist, is once again (a bit ) like before.
Imagen | Thibault Penin
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