Prime Video Without Ads Will Soon Cost Extra, Because Amazon Apparently Isn't Rich Enough

If you love to watch movies and television shows with unexpected commercial interruptions, have I got good news for you!

Following in the footsteps of its streaming competition, Variety has revealed that starting early next year, Amazon Prime Video will begin inserting advertisements into its programming. Amazon had long been a holdout on this front, primarily because the Jeff Bezos-owned company basically prints money via its e-tail business. But corporations are forever in search of short-term, quarterly growth, and the influx of advertising dollars should guarantee a Q1 bonanza in 2024.

For those of you who would prefer to watch your favorite films and series sans interruptions (freaks, the lot of you!), you can rest easy provided your budget allows you to cough up an extra $2.99 per month. That's right, Prime Video is also taking a cue from its competitors by gouging you for the pleasure of commercial-free entertainment. "What's three dollars," ask the multimillionaires in the C-suite. Well, when every streamer hikes their subscription fee in the midst of ongoing wage stagnation (which the majority of American workers are experiencing), regular folks who want to watch the buzziest shows across seven or eight platforms are now shelling out $24 more per month than they used to. When you're struggling to make ends meet, you feel that squeeze.

And it needn't be this way.

The money quote in Variety's story on Amazon's decision comes from Tim Hanlon, the CEO of Vertere Group (which soaks up millions of misspent dollars as a "media-industry consultancy"). "The TV industry has really never been able to truly control itself when it comes to aggressive monetization," says Hanlon. This is true of every corporation operating today. But what we're seeing now are companies ripping the couch cushions out in search of spare change. The "growth" they seek is, at a certain point, unsustainable. But I guess raising subscription prices is preferable to their other method of manufacturing growth — i.e. firing a bunch of people.

In this specific case, does Prime Video, which possesses possibly the deepest movie library of all the streamers, have enough must-watch original content to keep subscribers who really, truly hate watching commercials? "The Boys" is still going strong and spawning spinoffs, but viewer favorites like "Jack Ryan" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" wrapped up this year.

Consumers will have to make tough choices over the next few months. Amazon might've miscalculated. Prime Video might lose subscribers. But here's the horribly depressing thing: Amazon, unlike the rest of their competition, will barely notice. Late-stage capitalism is a helluva party.