Will Telus Cover This New Amazon Prime Charge ????

[BobArthur]

So starting in 2024 Amazon Prime will now start showing ads but they will have the option of staying ad-free for an extra $2.99/month.

from cp24.com:

Amazon Prime Video will include advertising during shows and movies starting early next year, joining other streaming services that have added different tiers of subscriptions.

Members of Amazon Prime can pay $2.99 per month in the U.S. to keep their service ad-free, the company said Friday.

Streaming services are in a heated tug-of-war over viewers and users are growing more adept at jumping in and out of those services, often depending on price. The platforms risk losing customers with price hikes, but they could lose them if they don't generate new content that wins over users.

Ads in Prime Video content will start in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada in early 2024, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in the year.

Amazon said that it's not making changes to the price of Prime membership next year. It plans to announce pricing for ad-free programming for countries other than the U.S. at a later time.

For U.S. users, Amazon said it will send out an email to Prime members several weeks before ads are introduced into its programs with information on how to sign up for the ad-free option if they choose to do so.

Full story: https://www.cp24.com/entertainment-news/movie-tv-news/amazon-prime-video-will-soon-come-with-ads-or-...

For those of us that have Amazon Prime as a theme pack I wonder if Telus will pick up that extra charge or will the customers have to do it themselves ????

[dru]

@BobArthur Amazon announced ads and an ad-free tier only today so it's very early given they are targetting 2024 for a Canada rollout. There are no dicussions happening - that I am aware of - at this time and I suspect there won't be any updates until closer to Amazon's launch date. Feel free to ask again in late December 🙂

[BobArthur]

Dammit dru - I need an answer and I need it now !!!!!! 😁  Yes - I did know that the news was just released within the last 24 hours and I was just putting the information out there for my fellow Telus users that subscribe to Amazon Prime Canada services either on their own or through Telus. I am pretty sure that if it ends up that the customers are responsible for this new fee ( if they choose it ) that I would still keep APC as a theme pack and probably just put up with the ads.......depending on just how many they give us.

[dru]

😁

[Rocky3]

Really quite simple. Pay the $2.99 or watch the ads.

Don't expect Telus to pick up the $2.99. 

The cost of prime has gone up from last year, the cost will probably go up next year

[BobArthur]

Even more simple - let's wait and see what Telus does. 

[giantbrownguy]

I wouldn't expect it. When Netflix increased their prices, Telus tacked on an additional charge to cover the cost of retaining the "ultra" plan. So there's an extra $4 "Netflix Premium Surcharge" on my bill to cover the difference. So essentially, it comes down to if your existing bill covers Prime pre- or post-fee. 

[BobArthur]

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@giantbrownguy wrote:

 So essentially, it comes down to if your existing bill covers Prime pre- or post-fee. 

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That's a good point - it might be one of those things where the customers that already subscribe to Amazon Prime through Telus are grandfathered in and won't have to pay the extra charge for no ads while new customers to the service will have to make that decision. It will be interesting to see what Telus does and also just how Amazon Prime introduces this new function.