Amazon introduced advertisement in Prime Video in the beginning of February 2024 for all Prime subscribers. All Prime subscribers who watch Prime Video content get ads by default when they do so.
While Amazon did show trailers, another form of promotion, before shows and movies, it did not show ads on top of that up until now.
Amazon introduced an Ad Free add-on option to Prime subscribers. Available for an extra $2.99 per month, Ad Free promises do remove advertisement from the Prime Video experience. This add-on removes the “new” ads, but not trailers from Amazon Prime Video.
The introduction of video ads on Prime Video is not the only change, apparently. Prime Video subscribers who use Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos cannot use the functionality anymore by default according to reports.
In other words: only customers who pay the extra $2.99 per month get support for Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos. Amazon appears to have removed support silently and without notice.
Amazon is silent
All Amazon Prime and Prime Video subscribers are subscribed to an ad-powered plan by default now. Up until now, it appeared that this was the only change that Amazon implemented.
Amazon has received criticism for how it introduced the ad-powered plan to its service. Unlike Netflix, Disney and others, it did not introduce a new ad-powered plan that customers could subscribe to.
Instead, Amazon added ads to the regular subscription. This is a hidden price increase and users got an inferior product compared to the previous offering.
Consumer organizations in several countries are suing Amazon over this already.
If that is not bad enough, Amazon has now also removed support for Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos for all regular subscribers. Want access to the features again? That is $2.99 per month extra then, thank you very much.
Regular Prime Video subscribers are limited to a resolution of 4K, HDR10 and Dolby Digital 5.1. Those who select the Ad Free add-on will notice that they gain support for Dolby Vision HDR und Dolby Atmos 3D-Sound.
I confirmed the change on a TV at home. The German 4K Filme website noticed the change as well and verified it on three different setups.
Amazon makes no mention of the removed functionality. The Ad Free add-on reveals no information that it is required to use Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. The missing functionality is not mentioned by Amazon in any official communication either.
Closing Words
If you needed another reason to consider cancelling your Amazon Prime subscription, this may be it. In the worst case, you not only getting ads while watching content on Amazon Prime, you are also getting an inferior product to before.