Proactive Investors - Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) will have adverts on its UK Prime Video streaming service starting 5 February 2024.
Customers in the UK and Germany will encounter "limited" ads unless they opt to pay an additional £2.99 per month to eliminate them.
This move echoes that of rivals like Disney+ and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), which introduced cheaper ad-supported membership price hikes.
Amazon justified the introduction, stating it would "allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time".
The company assured customers of having "meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers".
Even with the ad-free subscription, live content such as sports will continue to include advertising.
In the US and Canada, ads will appear from 29 January, expanding to France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia later in 2024.
The introduction of ads follows Amazon's recent announcements about upcoming content, renewing hit series and striking deals for new projects, including collaborations with Games Workshop for Warhammer 40,000 and the highly anticipated Fallout series.