Posted 27 December 2023

Amazon Prime Video to introduce adverts in UK from February 2024

Amazon is set to introduce adverts to its Prime Video streaming service from 5th of February 2024.

Amazon have announced that customers in the UK and Germany will see "limited" ads unless they pay £2.99 per month to remove them. The introduction of ads comes after several announcements from Amazon about future content.

Customers in the US and Canada will see ads earlier from the 29th January, with Amazon planning to expand them to France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia later in 2024.

Amazon has said the move would "allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time". "We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers," the firm added in an email to customers.

It said even if people pay to remove ads, live content such as sports will continue to include advertising. Amazon is yet to confirm how ads on Prime will work, but they're expected to appear before and even during content.

Amazon Prime currently costs £8.99 a month in the UK for services including next-day and same-day delivery on millions of items on the marketplace, advert-free listening on its music streaming platform, and access to original TV series and films on Prime Video. Amazon said that price will not be changing in 2024.

(Source)

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27th Dec 2023
I never watch any Prime anyway, but it is taking advantage of those part way through a yearly sub (edited)
27th Jan
"Amazon told us that annual Prime members will be able to get a pro rata refund of their subscription fee if they decide to cancel as a result of the change."
27th Dec 2023
That will be the end of my Prime membership when it’s up for renewal.
26th Jan
Best thing we did was getting rid of Prime. We don't buy as much rubbish from Amazon and use other shops or simply don't buy it. And they're always offering a free month or free week just in case there's some football on or something.
26th Jan
i see every one signing up for the sea YAAARRR!!!!
26th Jan
Speak for yourself. I don't mind actually paying for things if I enjoy them.
26th Jan
One thing that needs to get solved is the number of adverts you get when resuming a show. I have young children so if I'm watching a show that's 45-60m episodes then I will probably watch halves of episodes from time to time. Succession was painful on Now TV - you can't start to skip until you've watched a minute of adverts, but if you skip across an advert break then you have to watch ANOTHER minute of adverts. It's a terrible user experience.

Remember that Amazon makes a profit of around $256b annually. That's nearly half a million a minute.
27th Jan
I remember when Youtube was only skip in 4 seconds, now it's ridiculous. One trick I use on Youtube is to press the back button then play the video again and repeat a couple or three times and eventually the ad goes down to 4 -5 seconds. I might be spending more time backing in and out of videos than the original ad would have taken but it gives me something to do while the ad isn't on and I win on principle.
28th Jan
Taking the absolute mick tbh.. so they increase the overall price, worsen the service then tell customers to pay more money to get the service they had already received a price hike on? Its a violation at this point..
27th Dec 2023
Maybe stop spending billions on terrible adaptations like LOTR and Wheel of Time. Not to mention the endless seasons and spinoffs of The Boys which has become exactly the sort of thing it was parodying.
26th Jan
Or making one season, leave on a cliff hanger and then decide to cancel. Arghhh!
27th Dec 2023
apparently companies can never have enough money.
27th Jan
They're $134 billion in debt.
3rd Jan
Was going off Amazon for a while now to be honest, their customer service used to be reasonable, now its diabolical..
26th Jan
Can only agree.

A lot easier to deal with problem on Ebay than amazon.

Amazon will easily refund on cheap items, but anything slightly more expensive and will just refuse.

Not to mention stolen parcel.
For them a photo of the parcel under the hedge classifies as delivered successfully
3rd Jan
I subbed to nowtv and noticed ads. One series I was watching, there was an ad every 8 mins or so. No thanks. Unsubbed.
26th Jan
ah, you clearly didn't get their "boost" option to remove ads, go above 720p and allow two simultaneous streams - only £6 a month!
26th Jan
Why are adverts shoved in our faces so much? I deliberately try to avoid companies that over-advertise. If I want something, I go and look for it!
26th Jan
Never paid Amazon subs or anyone else . Adverts on TV get muted or channel changed . Immune to adverts , I only buy what I need after deep research on price and feedback !
26th Jan
Yep, even TV shows that I'm really looking forward to I record these days then only watch them when they've finished so I can fast forward through the multiple 5 minute advert breaks, a far more satisfying viewing experience.

Also do the same for Match Of The Day so I don't have to listen to the idiot pundits talking nonsense & laughing their heads off at their tiresome in-jokes
26th Jan
All streaming platforms are becoming more and more of pain than pleasure. Goodbye to all of them.
26th Jan
And hello wonderful Phsyical blurays for only £2 at charity shops and 4 Ultra-HD bluray 😁
26th Jan
[deleted]
27th Jan
The level of D-Riding you’re doing on behalf of Mr Bezos is commendable, I know he doesn’t care but well done sir.
26th Jan
Fine by me, my prime runs out at the beginning of Feb so bye bye amazon, and i already ditched netflix before xmas, so that is me now sub free, feels great, and a big thank you to netflix and amazon for making this all possible. lol
27th Jan
I did before Christmas, and let me tell you, the dark patterns they use to get you to renew are quite insidious.
26th Jan
I'm going to see how it is in practice but might also cancel at the next renewal.

Alexa has been ruined by only letting you shuffle with random other songs, the Amazon Music on the phone flat refuses to even play the songs at all now, Prime deliveries never seem to be available next day any more (it almost always comes up 2 days), and most of the things I used to buy regularly have gone up in price beyond the supermarkets now too.
Plus, as someone else pointed out, there are amazon lockers everywhere now, so you can generally get the free deliveries anyway if you don't mind picking it up from a locker on your way back from the high street or the supermarket or whatever.
This might make it even less worth the 100 quids.
27th Jan
Getting rid of Prime doesn't affect Alexa as long as you still have an Amazon Account (logon ID).
26th Jan
I am not paying them any more and cancelling my Subs at next renewal, Jeff Bezos can get someone else to pay for his space flights in future, but it won't be me.
26th Jan
Most of Prime's content appears to be below 5/10 on IMDB
26th Jan
Citation needed
28th Jan
I have been on an annual subscription for years but this will be my last. Charging extra for no ads is just pure greed - it's not my fault they've been spending millions on crap shows that nobody watches. I'll switch to a monthly sub, binge watch what I want to watch then cancel again (don't use Amazon Music). I don't think this is going to work out the way Amazon think it will. Without the free delivery when I'm on a cancelled period, I'll simply buy things from elsewhere if it works out the same and the order is less than £25.
26th Jan
I'm having second thoughts about prime now
Plex etc have some amazing free stuff and it's the paying and still getting adverts that's the problem for me, love learning from YouTube but the paid plan is ridiculous, but ATM it's advertising every 4-5 minutes and it's really getting to me now
Adverts for a pigging crap heater or camera every few minutes
26th Jan
This heater is breakthrough technology from a scientist who no one’s heard of who was angry about energy prices!
26th Jan
Looks like 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ wins

Freevee has loads of films is free and very short adverts. They even have a few 4k now.
Literally Freevee probably on a par with Prime vidoe now except free. Bizarre really as its also owned by Amazon (edited)
26th Jan
Freevee has some great movie on it
26th Jan
Prime video is naff, Amazon treat employees shockingly too. I still use Amazon mainly for third party sellers but I am actively avoiding giving Amazon money where possible.
26th Jan
In this case just move to eBay, Ali, temu

3rd party on amazon means zero protection in reality
28th Jan
Row, row, row your boat …
26th Jan
Ah yes Amazon, so you give me the option of charging me an additional £2.99 per month so that I can watch things ad free. How long will that last until you either up the price or decide to add ads into everything? Consider yourself cancelled. I wont be pressured into paying more just so I dont have ads.
27th Jan
Stupid question.... Is there any way to get Prime delivery only WITHOUT their music/video rubbish? Freesat and radio more than caters for my viewing needs.
27th Jan
Just get your stuff delivered to a pickup point- that gives you free delivery with no spending requirement.
3rd Jan
£2.99 extra for no ads
Another cancellation coming
28th Jan
Remember when Bezos demanded he wanted a game of thrones for Amazon.

What he got was season eight of thrones packaged as LotR.

But seriously, don't they make enough.

I'm cramming The Expanse before ads and will look for alternative uncompressed photo storage cheaper.

If it wasn't for their delivery, prime video, music and maybe even Alexa would no longer exist. (edited)
27th Dec 2023
I guess this is the future for all media platforms now - even the BBC force adverts on you (admittedly it's for it's own content, but still),
This is why we have a TiVo & Plex, I can't watch live TV anyway (no signal) and I wouldn't want watch it without the ability to skip ads or fast forward through the boring bits. I am in control of my AV entertainment now!
26th Jan
Virgin Tivo used to be OK but almost all the catchups are now on apps with insane levels of advert.
26th Jan
Apparently the customer has to pay for improvements not the people that own the company who just take money out.
Just look at the water industry
28th Jan
Best advert for Nationalising essential utilities that is.

Cost of not pumping raw sewage into the rivers and sea £10 billion. Shareholder payout £10 billion. (Not actual figures but ball park)

The solution, customers pay for it. Dividends protected.
26th Jan
My year of Prime is up at the end of this month anyway, it's been a decent 5 years or so but an Amazon Locker has opened up less than a 5 minutes walk from where I live so my free delivery is covered. With the lack of quality shows Amazon has been producing and just the way the Entertainment industry as a whole seems to be going downhill in quality I think it's time to return to the high seas I'm not paying 5 different companies money to stream segregated content. (edited)
26th Jan
Amazon locker delivery is free?
27th Dec 2023
If this is going to be in addition to the £95 a year I currently pay for full Prime membership then they're taking the pee.

Thankfully I don't actually watch a huge amount of content on Prime Video anyway, aside from Reacher, so it might not be too much of an issue. (edited)
27th Jan
Yeah, going from 60 to 80 to 100 quid, and then adding ads... There's not really that much to even watch because Prime's a bit annoying to navigate and spends half its time trying to sell you stuff.
27th Jan
I've just cancelled my subscription - the entire point of streaming was to not watch ads at a lower price than cable.
26th Jan
Fallout TV Series coming in April must be costing them a fortune. Got to recoup some money incase it’s a flop.
26th Jan
Looking forward to this, really hope it isn't a flop :/
26th Jan
"Allow us to continue investing"

I hate that line.

Am I able to see the distribution of my investment given that you're making a point of mentioning you need more? Love to see the % that's gone into absolute tripe.

"We aim to"

Ahh yes, so when you invariably start showing more than linear TV you've got a nice little route to backtrack. (edited)
26th Jan
Yes where's this MGM content they bought
26th Jan
They need to raise more money somehow for original content, so why not. ITVX is no different, unless you pay. Prime still offers so many advantages, not just Prime video. So fair enough imo.
27th Jan
Yes the trillion dollar company needs to raise more money as they are short of it clearly....
They are getting enough money already, this is just pure greed.
They don't even pay the correct taxes, nothing ever gets done about it.
Comparing Amazon to ITVX, they are not comparable, 1.64 trillion to 3.15 billion dollars (edited)
27th Jan
If we all refuse to buy what is advertised, what's the point of vendors paying for adverts? I deliberately avoid buying products that are "over-advertised" on TV.
27th Jan
Prime is getting worse and worse.
27th Jan
Agreed. Won't be renewing. 👎
26th Jan
Surely you can cancel and get a partial refund if you've paid up front and now they want an extra £3 a month for the previous ad-free experience you signed up for?
26th Jan
They will most likely have a Force majeure clause or a we use to say "forced to take bullshit" clause
26th Jan
so that they can do abominations like rings of power
26th Jan
Sorry Amazon - nope. My Prime ended yesterday.

Exceeded by download limit on my VPN for the first time in years - feels good to be back, me hearties!

(These two statements are not linked - honest)
26th Jan
I cancelled my Prime as soon as they sent me a message to say they were going to have ads. It ended on 13th Jan and I haven't missed it at all yet.
28th Jan
I just watched a series on ITVX with adverts, let the adverts play while I went to the loo, made a drink, muted the TV and checked social media etc, didn't watch any and not worth paying for the convenience of removing ads.