With adverts being added to Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service, and the ad-free tier becoming more expensive – many are looking for ways to save.
And here’s the secret: if you’re primarily using Amazon Prime for its Prime Video streaming service – there’s a way you could save up to £36/year.
The full Amazon Prime service gives you a long list of benefits, such as free shipping and a limited music subscription, along with access to Prime Video.
However, as with other streaming services (such as Netflix and Disney+), Prime Video also has a little-known standalone subscription option that costs less than a full Amazon Prime subscription.
The standalone Prime Video plan costs just £5.99/month, while the full Amazon Prime tier costs £8.99/month (after the price increase from 2022), or £95/year.
And while adverts WILL be added to the £5.99/month plan, just like the other plans – you can still make it ad-free by paying an extra £2.99/month.
So how come most people haven’t even heard of this £5.99 Prime Video option?
Well, it seems Amazon would much rather sign you up for the full Prime subscription, therefore the standalone Prime Video subscription is hard to find – and is almost impossible to sign up to on mobile devices.
So read ahead to learn exactly how to join (or downgrade to) the low-cost Prime Video subscription.
Amazon Prime is a long-running subscription service that gives its members a host of perks, including free one-day shipping and grocery deliveries, access to Prime Music with a library of a million songs, a rotating selection of free ebooks and magazines, and of course – Prime Video.
Amazon’s streaming service is a big competitor to Netflix and Disney+, offering thousands of TV shows and films, including Prime Video originals such as Jack Ryan, The Boys, Lord Of The Rings: The Rings of Power TV series, and many others.
Prime Video has also been getting into live sports in recent years – though it will lose the Premier League in 2025.
You can watch Prime Video on almost every streaming device (such as Roku and Amazon’s own Fire TV), Smart TVs, Sky devices, tablets and smartphones – as most of them support the Prime Video app.
If you’re not a big Amazon shopper, you don’t want the perks that come with the full Amazon Prime subscription, but you do want to sign up for Amazon’s streaming service – you can subscribe to the standalone version of Prime Video and pay less.
Adverts On Prime Video
Since its inception, Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service was known for its ad-free experience.
But, like many other streaming services (such as Netflix and Disney+), Amazon decided to add adverts to Prime Video.
This change applies to both new and existing subscribers, who will start seeing adverts when watching TV shows and films included in their Prime Video subscription from February 2024.
To maintain the uninterrupted viewing, users will need to pay an additional £2.99 per month, regardless of which Amazon Prime tier they’re on.
This new model means a total cost of approximately £130/year for Amazon Prime with an ad-free Prime Video service, compared to the current £95/year for Amazon Prime (or £72/year for the standalone Prime Video option).
How To Sign Up To The Low-Cost Prime Video Plan
At £5.99/month, you’ll be saving up to £36 over the monthly Amazon Prime membership, if you remain subscribed for a year (if you then sign up for the ad-free option, you’ll be paying £8.98/month in total).
The discounted annual full Amazon Prime subscription is £95/year – as opposed to £71.88 if you just keep Prime Video for a full year (with adverts) – so even compared to that, you’re still saving £23 per year.
And of course, you don’t have to keep your subscription for a full year with the standalone Prime Video subscription – the beauty of TV cord cutting is that you can sign up for Netflix one month, watch things you’re interested in, then unsubscribe and sign up to Prime Video the next month.
Then Disney+, or Paramount+, or even nothing at all if you want to save money and just watch Freeview.
But first, you need to find the low-cost Prime Video tier.
Although we’ve been assured in the past by Amazon’s PR that the standalone Prime Video tier isn’t being phased out, it sure looks like Amazon REALLY wants you to sign up for the full Prime membership, and not the standalone video one.
In fact, on mobile devices, I couldn’t find ANY clear way to sign up for the low-cost Prime Video tier (as of this writing, at least).
And on desktops, almost every banner and Prime Video promotion will direct you to the full Amazon Prime trial.
So if you do want the cheaper Prime Video subscription, here’s what you need to do:
1. On a Desktop computer browser, go to the Amazon Prime sign-up page.
2. On that page, assuming you’re not already a Prime member, you’ll see a small link that says “See more plans” –
Sometimes the page looks like this – but it’s the same idea:
3. Once you click on “See more plans”, you’ll see the three available Prime subscription tiers –
The one on the left – Prime Video at £5.99/month – is the standalone streaming service option.
Remember – currently, you WON’T see that option if you go to that same page on a mobile device. The mobile sign-up page only lets you sign up for either the £8.99/m or £95/year plans.
You can get a free 30-day trial to either of these tiers, and then the subscription will automatically renew at the regular price, so don’t forget to cancel before the trial ends if you don’t want to continue.
What If I Want To Downgrade My Amazon Prime Subscription?
If you’re currently subscribed to the full Amazon Prime membership, but you pay monthly – the easiest thing would be to cancel, and once your subscription runs out, simply sign up for the standalone Prime Video tier as described above.
If, however, you’re on the annual membership and you want to downgrade, you’ll have to contact Amazon’s support first, ask them to cancel your plan immediately (with a partial refund) – and then sign up for the standalone Prime Video tier.
It will still be more expensive than the Prime Video standalone tier, but not by much – so if you even occasionally shop on Amazon, it might be worth it to keep your Prime subscription until it runs off.
despite contacting Amazon, I am unable to confirm how this change to their streaming service will work. Will the adds play before and after the film/show without the option to skip or fast forward, or will there be actual
commercial breaks during the film, nobody seems prepared to tell me.