Amazon Prime Video to stream ads in India; launches ad-free tier for additional ₹699 annually

Amazon Prime Video customers in India were in for an unpleasant surprise on Tuesday afternoon when they received emails announcing that movies and shows on the streaming service would come with ads, starting next month.

A new ad-free add-on option has been launched for users at an additional ₹699 per year, or ₹129 per month, which means a yearly paid subscription will now cost ₹2,198 (instead of ₹1,499) while a monthly plan will come for ₹428 (instead of ₹299).

“Starting June 17th, 2025, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than TV channels and other streaming services. No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership,” Amazon said in the email.

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In India, Prime Video competes with Netflix, which offers four ad-free plans: Mobile ( ₹149/month), Basic ( ₹199/month), Standard ( ₹499/month), and Premium ( ₹649/month). JioHotstar offers three plans: Mobile or ad-supported ( ₹149/three months or ₹499/year), Super or ad-supported ( ₹299/three months or ₹899/year) and Premium or ad-free ( ₹299/month, ₹499/three months and ₹1499/year).

Hybrid model

Video streaming platforms are increasingly looking to augment their SVoD (subscription video-on-demand) offerings with AVoD (advertising video-on-demand) programming, having realised that the hybrid model works best for price-sensitive consumers in India, according to a report from professional services network Deloitte.

SVoD revenue in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19% to $2.9 billion in 2027 from $1.2 billion in 2022, while AVoD could increase to $2.42 billion from $1.15 billion, at a slightly lower CAGR of 16%, Deloitte said.

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While streaming services offer premium content for monthly and annual subscriptions, AVoD content (libraries of these services, including catch-up TV content, movies as well as some originals) is the primary draw, given the easy access and low-entry barriers. AVoD content mainly attracts younger, cost-conscious viewers, often from tier-two and tier-three cities, who lean towards regional or mass-appeal content and are comfortable with ad interruptions, experts pointed out.

Siddharth Devnani, co-founder and director at digital agency SoCheers, said SVoD and AVoD are different segments of the market, though they share some overlap. While SVoD lies within the top 100 million households throughout the country, AVoD is five to eight times higher. This differentiation is used frequently in media targeting, especially for premium brands.