What the Tech: Amazon Prime Video now features commercials
By JAMIE TUCKER Consumer Technology Reporter
If you’ve sat down to watch a movie or series on Amazon Prime Video recently, you’ve probably noticed commercials.
The company sent Prime Members an email late last year notifying them that beginning in 2024 a limited number of commercial breaks will be added before and during shows and movies.
That doesn’t sit well with longtime Amazon Prime members.
One of the biggest benefits of an Amazon Prime subscription was commercial-free movies and TV shows, similar to Netflix.
Now Amazon customers will need to watch ads before and during the show or pay an extra $3 a month to watch uninterrupted.
Amazon said the extra charge will enable the company to develop and produce more quality content for the platform. Last year, Amazon earned 68 Emmy nominations for its productions.
How intrusive are the ads? Amazon said there’ll be fewer commercials than on ad-supported streaming services such as Pluto, Tubi, and Amazon-owned FreeVee.
When I chose the Amazon Prime series “Reacher”, a 30-second ad played before the show started but in the hour-long program, there were no other ads.
The Amazon Original movie “Shotgun Wedding”, started with a 15-second ad but no other commercials throughout the rest of the movie.
I found that non-Amazon Original movies had commercials every 30 minutes or so. Not ideal, but not too terrible.
But the German website 4kfilm discovered Amazon also removed Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision from the free tier. That means the highest quality picture and sound are only available if you pay the extra $3 a month.
Most people may never notice a difference, but some will, especially viewers who purchased top-line television sets for a movie theater experience.
An Amazon Prime customer has filed a class-action lawsuit over the change, claiming Amazon deceived customers by advertising commercial-free content and violated Consumer Protection Laws by breaching its contracts with Prime Members.
I found Prime Video commercial breaks to be brief but do interrupt the flow of what you’re watching. When I sat down to watch the classic rom-com “Some Kind of Wonderful”, a 15 to 30-second ad played every 40 minutes or so. The ads also popped up without warning and often in the middle of a scene as an actor delivered their line.
Overall though, the commercial breaks are not always intrusive. But for people who demand the highest quality picture and sound, they’ll be forced to pay $36 a year on top of the $140 annual Prime membership fee.
