Amazon is throttling Prime Video subscription: users have to pay extra

Amazon's Prime streaming service recently started advertising. Now customers may have to settle for lower video quality.

MUNICH – Customers of the streaming service Amazon Prime have to accept losses again: In February 2024, Amazon started placing ads on Prime Video. Now streaming quality also suffers because Amazon has removed support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos for standard definitions.

Lower quality detected on Amazon: Streaming provider self-explanatory

Amazon is reticent to provide details about Prime, so it's up to customers to gradually discover exactly what's changing on the platform. Technology website 4KFlame Discover Prime Video streaming content on the ad-supported tier in HDR10 with Dolby Digital 5.1 instead of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Observations were conducted on smart TVs from Samsung, LG and Sony. Amazon also recently eliminated a popular payment method.

An Amazon representative confirmed, among other things, that the edgeThat this was an intentional move and that the company supported the Dolby standards with an ad-free tier.

Amazon confirms that Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos are only available with an ad-free subscription

“Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos features are only available with the No Ads option and with related titles,” Amazon spokeswoman Katie Parker explained, so the best quality for Prime movies without an ad-free subscription on Amazon will be in 4K resolution of the future—resolution with HDR10 and Dolby Digital audio. 5.1.

A monthly subscription to Amazon Prime costs €8.99, and an annual subscription currently costs €89.90. With the ad-free option (an additional €2.99 per month), Prime Video costs €125.78 for an annual reservation, meaning an additional cost of €35.88.

Amazon currently only advertises in a few countries

Currently, Amazon only advertises in the US, UK, Germany and Canada, but it could expand to more regions later this year. Dolby Vision and Atmos support will also presumably be removed from the ad-supported tier in these regions only.

If you don't have a high-end TV that supports Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos, this change likely won't affect you. (KJSC)