Amazon Prime Video’s New Ads-Based Subscription Has A Surprise Catch
Amazon AMZN caused a furor recently when it announced that it was introducing advertisements right across its Prime Video streaming service. Not, to be clear, that it was introducing a new cheaper tier for the service that came with ads, but that the core subscription everyone was on would suddenly start incorporating ads — unless you were willing to pay $2.99/£2.99 extra a month to go ads-free. The ads would be added even to existing subscriptions, rather than only applying to new or annually renewed accounts.
Now that the new tier situation has kicked in, though (from Jan. 29 in the U.S., and Feb. 6 in the UK), it turns out that Amazon’s unconventional approach to introducing an ads tier to its video subscription model comes with more bad news attached: the Prime Video with ads tier also denies subscribers the previously available benefits of Dolby Vision high dynamic range pictures and Dolby Atmos sound.
So as well as having to put up with adverts on a subscription they may well have taken out months ago out with no expectation that ads would be involved, basic tier subscribers now find that they also no longer get the same potential premium picture and sound performance features they once had.
