Yes, Prime Video Has Added More Ads Lately — Like, a Lot More
You're not imagining things: It does take longer to watch a TV show on Prime Video these days.
The ad load on Amazon's streaming service has essentially doubled in recent months, from two and a half to three minutes of commercials per hour to four to six minutes per hour, according to a report from AdWeek.
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'Prime Video ad load has gradually increased to four to six minutes per hour,' an Amazon representative admitted in an email to an ad buyer earlier this month.
Amazon defended the move in a statement: 'While demand continues to grow, our commitment is to improving ad experiences rather than simply increasing the number of ads shown.'
Prime Video was ad-free when it debuted in 2006 as an add-on to Amazon's Prime subscription service that offers free delivery of Amazon products for an annual fee. In January 2024, though, Prime Video introduced ads on all of its films and TV shows, asking subscribers to pay an additional $2.99 per month fee for an ad-free experience. (Other streamers like Netflix, Hulu and Disney+ all offer cheaper subscription tiers with ads as well.)
'This change will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time,' the streamer said in a message to subscribers at the time, adding: 'We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers.'
Have you noticed the uptick in ads on Prime Video shows lately? Is it making you more likely to pay for no ads, or more likely to drop Prime Video altogether? Let us know in the comments!
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