Today I received a friendly email from my friends at Amazon Prime — currently $139/year — telling me the ad free nature of Amazon Prime Video was going to change.
There will now be “limited” ads on its movie and TV offerings, unless I want to pay — drumroll please — an additional $2.99/month = $36/year. Boom!
This is necessary because: “This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.”
Believe me this is a huge comfort to me (and I am sure to you, also) because I was afraid Prime Video might not be able to invest in compelling content over a long period of time. Whew! Now I can sleep at night.
This is the Prime Nibble that looks, feels, and smells like a bit of corporate blackmail.
We are getting close to my limit with Prime.
2005 – Prime is launched and priced at $79/year
2011 – Prime Video is included in Prime
2014 – Prime subscription is increased from $79/year to $99/year
2015 – Amazon launches Prime Day bargains to huge success
2018 – Prime subscription increases from $99/year to $119/year
2021 — Amazon buys MGM for $8.4B and has 147MM subscribers
2022 – Prime subscription increases from $119/year to $139/year
2024 – Prime introduces ad-free content for an additional $36/year making subscription price $175/year and has 167MM subscribers
The additional $36/year if fully subscribed by all members would add more than $6,000,000,000 to
Amazon revenue. Wow!
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Happy New Year!
