Amazon Prime Video: Surcharge or advertising from 2024 in Germany

Amazon has announced that it will display adverts when streaming on Prime Video in the USA, Canada and Germany from 2024. There is no information on this for Switzerland and Austria yet. But you can probably assume that it's only a matter of time before adverts flicker across the screens there too.

Without adverts only for an extra charge

Those who don't want to see adverts will have to dig deeper into their pockets. In the USA, users will have to pay an additional 2.99 dollars - that's around 2.81 euros or 2.72 francs. It is not yet known how high the surcharge will be in this country. Amazon will send out an email a few weeks before the measure is implemented, informing users of the possible upgrade.

A year ago, Amazon raised the Prime price by one euro per month or 20 euros per year. Prime Video is included in the Prime subscription along with other services, so a certain price is justified. However, the imposition of adverts despite a subscription is annoying. So anyone who doesn't want to watch adverts will be served up another price increase.

After all, Amazon promises in the current announcement to show "significantly fewer adverts than linear TV channels and other video streaming providers". On average, ad-financed suppliers broadcast four to six minutes of adverts per hour. Amazon itself occasionally shows trailers at the beginning of a film or series episode. Presumably, the announced adverts will also be shown here.

What is the competition doing?

The other major streaming suppliers - above all Netflix, Disney+ and Apple TV+ - have also caused a stir in recent months.

Netflix took action against account sharing this year. Since then, using the service with accounts outside of your own household has cost extra. Despite the outrage, the number of paid plans rose sharply as a result.

An ad-financed plan with Netflix is heavily discounted compared to the standard subscription.

Disney+ is also devaluing its previous standard plan in Switzerland from 1 November. The price will remain the same, but those who want to stream in 4K as before will have to pay three euros or five francs more. At the same time, there will be a new plan with adverts that is three euros or five francs cheaper than the standard plan.

Apple TV+ implemented a price increase for its services a year ago. Apple does not yet advertise. However, the hiring of an expert in the field of TV advertising led to rumours at the beginning of the year that there would be news on this front.

Do you think the price for Prime is still justified despite the adverts in the video service? How much more would you be willing to pay for an advert-free Prime Video subscription? Let me know in the comments!