Most streaming services have two levers when it comes to increasing profitability on the customer side.
- Increase the price of subscriptions.
- Show more ads.
Major streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon Prime Video introduced ad-supported plans only recently.
These are cheaper, but the downside is that ads are shown regularly. Pricing varies from region to region, but if you take Netflix in the United States as an example, you get the following options:
- Standard with ads: $6.99
- Standard: $15.49
- Premium: $22.99
Netflix increased the pricing of ad-free plans several times already and will likely continue that practice. The service did kill of a popular ad-free plan this year to put even more pressure on users.
Other major streaming services follow the same strategy. Plans with ads have not increased as much, or at all, in the meantime.
Ads introduce an interesting option now for these services. I call it the YouTube-strategy: increase ads steadily to push users into subscribing to a premium plan.
The effect is twofold: you either earn more, because more ads are viewed, or you get an increase in ad-free plan signups, because users hate ads.
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It is possible that some users choose to unsubscribe from a service as a response, but subscriptions increase in number right now, which suggests that the effect is not large enough to matter to these companies.
Amazon Prime Video: more ads in 2025
Amazon plans (paywall FT) to increase the number of ads that users see in 2025 when watching Prime Video. The service is special for several reasons.
- It is available as part of an Amazon Prime subscription, which offers additional benefits.
- Amazon is showing ads to all subscribers, unless they pay extra to have these removed.
Amazon follows the same strategy that all major streaming services follow right now. Users will be exposed to additional advertisement to earn more revenue and increase the number of users who pay for an ad-free experience.
Closing Words
You do not have to be a genius to predict that the companies will continue to push ads and increase the price of plans as well in 2025.
This will stop only when the number of subscribers is going down significantly or when enough users leave a free streaming service for another.
What is your take on all of this? Are you subscribed to a streaming service right now? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
I canceled my reacuring amazon prime when I noticed that not all movies and shows were no longer included in the price. I have found that it is best to use a combination of free services and rotate pay services so I only have one pay service active at a time. I watch all the stuff I want to see on the one pay service then cancel it, and start another pay service. This has worked out to once a month cancel the current and start a new one.
That’s a great strategy. Also doing this, but only once or twice a year. They could end monthly subscriptions to combat this, but if they do, I wouldn’t subscribe to them at all anymore.
Actually, it is more insidious. Somebody showed a screen for “Parks and Recreations” on Amazon. For every season, there are two episodes that are not included, but you can get them if you pay an additional $22 a month.
Prime could be of interest to me; not for any streaming content but for free delivery of all the stuff I buy from them. In NL land I can get free delivery if I spend €20 or more without being subscribed to Prime, but not for purchases in other countries which is where my interest lies.
I buy a lot of DVDs from Amazon UK and being subscribed there would save me a small fortune in delivery charges. But no, according to Amazon, Prime deliveries are only free if you reside in the country you’re purchasing from.
And now Amazon UK has increased delivery charges to a whopping £10,57 even if you only order one DVD.
I guess Bezos must be getting short of cash.