Adverts start on Prime Video 26th August.

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rugrat

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#320214 18-Jul-2025 11:38

Received email from Prime Video stating limited Adverts will start 26th August.

$2.99 additional can be paid more month for ad free option.

My thoughts are Prime is the cheapest out there, and even with another $2.99 still will be, at least there’s no additional charge for 4K availability.

I’ll see how frequent the ads and then decide which way to go. As I pay through 2degrees be interested to see how charged, the third party content I pay directly to Prime so hoping will work same way.

Dear Prime Video member,

We are writing to you about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting August 26, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. No action is required from you. We will also offer a new ad free option for an additional NZ$2.99 per month* that you can sign up for starting on August 26.

Your membership includes access to Prime Video exclusive and original series like Fallout, The Boys, Reacher, Clarkson’s Farm, Landman, Mobland, The Summer I Turned Pretty, as well as movies such as Heads of State, Another Simple Favour, Red One, The Accountant 2, Road House and The Idea of You and live sports including the exclusive coverage for 67 regular-season NBA games launching in October.

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#3395313 18-Jul-2025 12:21

Yes, just got the same email - may actually ditch this as I really don't watch stuff there that often....

loceff13

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#3395332 18-Jul-2025 13:11

Yeah ad-free is more expensive that getting a netflix household other profile etc from a friend now.

nitro

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#3395335 18-Jul-2025 13:18

i got that, too. will have to suss out the value we get from it, but will see what the ads will be like - specifically how intrusive/annoying.

rugrat

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#3395340 18-Jul-2025 13:41

loceff13:

Yeah ad-free is more expensive that getting a netflix household other profile etc from a friend now.

yep, but the friend has to be paying almost $34 a month for 4K.

If you halved it between you the cost would be about $8 each more then Prime Video.

I don’t know anyone paying the 4K Netflix subscription that would be prepared to sell it to me for $9.99 or what ever the extra profile is.

I watch Prime all the time, which doesn’t seem to be the case with most from looks of it.
I like old TV content which they have a lot of. And they have some good original series in 4K.

Dingbatt

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#3395342 18-Jul-2025 13:52

An occasional movie and Clarkson’s Farm are about all I watch at the moment.

I’ll see how intrusive the ads actually are. If they are too much, at that point, the choice will be ditch it, or pay the extra.

It might be that Amazon Prime, Disney+ and AppleTV+ get 4 months of the year each.

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#3395347 18-Jul-2025 14:18

We watch more Amazon content than we do Netflx, prime is still very good value even with the extra $3. If its ads at the beginning or in a pause (like Neon), I could maybe live with it, but if in the middle of shows, no chance. I'll probably just cough up the $3 anyway, still so cheap.

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#3395362 18-Jul-2025 14:58

Received the same email as well. Will see how it goes as well.

At the moment we subscribed to Prime Video on a month to month basis, as we really watch only K-Dramas (Korean Dramas) and some of them are beginning to appear only on Prime Video, therefore we would only subscribe for that month (or two) if the drama that we are after is available on Prime.

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#3395377 18-Jul-2025 16:00

Starting to become like Sky

Chris2far

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#3395704 20-Jul-2025 15:58

This was first announced as coming at the end of 2024, so took a while to come together.

I'll see how annoying the adverts are. Timing of when they are played, length and content before deciding if to pay the opt out fee.

At the moment I have Prime on and depending on content could be turned off in a few months.

Paying an extra $2.99 per month won't be the reason though.

askelon

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#3407827 27-Aug-2025 12:42

It started yesterday for me. I never received any emails about it. Just went to watch a show and it popped up give us more money or we'll force adverts you dont give a crap on you.. I proceeded to continue watching. It had a 15 second one at the beginning for who knows what and randomly another 15 second one during.

i'll see how it goes but am thinking I might just cancel. Id rather they have just put the price up again and add a advert tier than this silliness. Ive been rather unhappy with all the advertising for their other stream services as well without any option to just not have the crap.

rugrat

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#3407830 27-Aug-2025 12:58

askelon:

It started yesterday for me. I never received any emails about it. Just went to watch a show and it popped up give us more money or we'll force adverts you dont give a crap on you.. I proceeded to continue watching. It had a 15 second one at the beginning for who knows what and randomly another 15 second one during.

i'll see how it goes but am thinking I might just cancel. Id rather they have just put the price up again and add a advert tier than this silliness. Ive been rather unhappy with all the advertising for their other stream services as well without any option to just not have the crap.

They do have an advert free tier. It’s three dollars more to remove the adverts.

I’ve only watched one program so far. Program 22 minutes long, one 30 second advert in middle.

The advert was for another Prime Video show so they weren’t generating revenue from it, an advert for the sake of an advert.

When started playing program it had go advert free at bottom, plus in settings on TV and under Prime selection from memory it had a QR code that could be scanned with phone to get to ad free option.

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#3407832 27-Aug-2025 13:02

If you mean Twitch theres Twitch Turbo for an ad-free experience but thats still almost $16/mo(no ads on any channels).

The reality is Twitch has never made a profit and likely never will. Serving live video on demand with a free model is a money loser, even for Youtube I suspect.

askelon

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#3407840 27-Aug-2025 14:05

They do have an advert free tier. It’s three dollars more to remove the adverts.

I’ve only watched one program so far. Program 22 minutes long, one 30 second advert in middle.

The advert was for another Prime Video show so they weren’t generating revenue from it, an advert for the sake of an advert.

When started playing program it had go advert free at bottom, plus in settings on TV and under Prime selection from memory it had a QR code that could be scanned with phone to get to ad free option.

I know I can upgrade from my current plan to a now advert free one but why.. Why not just create a different plan which has adverts and just increase the price of the advert free one.. Its just a cash grab. Since the beginning of 2024 its gone from $8/mo to $11/mo and now realistically $14/mo. They havent added anything extra in that time to justify it other than advertising a bunch of other PPV media.

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#3407844 27-Aug-2025 14:47

askelon:

[I know I can upgrade from my current plan to a now advert free one but why.. Why not just create a different plan which has adverts and just increase the price of the advert free one.. Its just a cash grab. Since the beginning of 2024 its gone from $8/mo to $11/mo and now realistically $14/mo.

People would complain either way: "I dont want to pay more... I dont want to switch plans... why couldnt they just have created a new plan instead?"

And yes its a cash grab. Its what commercial companies do: extract as much money out of the consumer as they can.

rugrat

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#3433797 12-Nov-2025 16:01

I’m think the Ads have past my threshold to be annoying, so will be paying the extra $3 soon.

Was one ad break for 30 seconds during show now it’s getting up to ad before program starts, and up to three more ad breaks in 40 or so minutes program and not able to skip. Have some ad break periods go for a minute.

If there was no Ad free option I would be cancelling the service, as miles well be watching free to air ones for no monthly out lay.

The more adverts they put on, if it encourages people to move to other options, the less advertisers are going to see their ads watched/seen.

I’m guessing the amount will increase to even more over time, not my definition of with limited ads.

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