By Josh Nason
If you enjoy the ad-free version of Amazon Prime and live in the U.S., it will cost you a little extra every month.
Revealed on Friday, the-ad free version is being rechristened to Prime Video Ultra and will give subscribers up to 100 downloads for offline viewing (was 25), five concurrent streams (was three) and 4K/UHD streaming — all starting on April 10th. And, of course, no ads.
The cost will now be $4.99 USD per month, up from the usual $2 USD per month. To save you using your calculator app, that makes the total cost $59.88 per year, up from $35.88 if you pay month-to-month.
If you already have a full year Prime membership, you can switch to the Ultra plan for $45.99 per year. which is a decent discount. I don’t know if that’s perpetual, but I’m assuming no.
If you’re a mostly cheap cheapo like me, there are also some benefits for Prime Video with ads (aka Prime Video Less Than Ultra) which isn’t going up in price (still $14.99/month or $139 per year).
Those would be:
- Dolby Vision in addition to HD/HDR
- 50 downloads (up from 25) for offline viewing
- Four concurrent streams (up from three)
Is it worth it?
In other posts on this here website, I have mentioned how the Prime Video commercial placements are among the most annoying because the breaks are so long (usually around 2:30 minutes). Is it worth between $46-$60 a year?
It really depends on how much you watch. In the last year, I watched a few movies, the most recent season of Reacher, the second and final season of American Rust, all of Fleabag, the second season of Fallout, and Terminal List: Dark Wolf. I did splurge on ad-free for a month, but I just don’t watch enough on there.
What say you?
