Amazon has begun notifying its Prime members in the Netherlands that they will soon encounter advertising breaks when streaming content within the Prime Video app.
The country is the latest region to be affected by Amazon’s push to integrate advertising in its Prime Video app, which offers thousands of TV shows and movies that are accessible to its Prime members at no added cost.
Historically, Prime Video content streamed without ad breaks, but Amazon shook things up two years ago when it introduced ads by default in the United States, a strategy that was quickly deployed to other mature streaming markets.
In most parts of the world, Prime members can pay a few dollars extra per month — or the equivalent of a few dollars in their home currency — to remove ad breaks from Prime Originals and other content licensed to Prime Video, though shows and movies from Amazon’s other media brand Freevee are typically exempt from this perk, as are live programs like sports.
The same will be true in the Netherlands, where Amazon will charge €3 per month (around U.S. $3.50 per month) if Prime members want to remove commercials from Prime Video-licensed content. Ads will still be present during live events like sports, Amazon warned.
Prime Video content will start streaming with ads in the Netherlands in late August.
