Amazon will introduce an ad-supported Prime Video tier

In accordance with a new report, Amazon is going to introduce an ad-supported tier for one of its services. A report from The Wall Street Journal indicates that the organization will introduce a new tier of Prime Video. Reportedly, the new tier will be ad-supported. Introducing ad-supported plans has become a common thing for streaming services. Previously, Netflix introduced an ads tier and now Amazon is following in its footsteps.

Well, this news is no surprise for many of us. Since we have learned in the past that the company was hiring officials for ad-supported video on demand (AVOD). Besides this, the company has also hired executives for free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) positions. Amazon is going by this strategy for quite a long, possibly since last fall.

Currently, Amazon Prime Video is priced at $8.99/mo. It can also be accessed as part of the $14.99/month Prime membership. Undoubtedly, Amazon streaming services are cheaper in contrast to others. However, given how much money Amazon spends on sports, such as Thursday Night Football, it wouldn’t be shocking to see rates rise shortly. The streamer is described in the study as being in its “early stages” of development. Therefore, it can be some time before we learn the cost of this tier.

In North America, Prime Video has 74M customers

The company doesn’t share the actual data of its Prime subscribers. However, some estimates indicate that Prime Video has 73.39 million subscribers in the US and Canada. Well, these numbers are quite good compared to other services like STARZ and SHOWTIME. One thing to mention here is that Prime Video is not used by all Prime members.

Well, seeing ads on an online streaming service might not appear appealing to many of us. However, it is becoming a normal practice with every passing day. On the other hand, Amazon can boost its consumer base by adding some FAST channels.