Amazon Prime subscribers will no longer be able to watch movies and series in 4K resolution without paying an additional cost. From now on, this image quality will be reserved for a new subscription level called “Ultra”, which will be priced at $5 per month. This is another example of how Prime membership continues to lose value over time.
On March 13, Amazon announced that its “Ad Free” subscription option will be renamed “Amazon Prime Ultra Video,” in addition to increasing its price. Amazon Amazon Prime Video, which initially offered ad-free content, stopped being completely ad-free a few years ago. Currently, the platform offers an additional “Ad Free” option for $3 per month, which allows you to eliminate advertising while playing movies and series.
However, the company has confirmed that this plan will change its name and will be more expensive. Starting next month, the ad-free option will be called “Prime Video Ultra” in the United States and will cost $5 per month. As part of this change, Amazon will remove access to 4K streaming included within the standard Prime subscription and place it behind this new paid tier.
As the company explained in a publication on its official blog, the objective is to finance improvements to the service. “Offering ad-free streaming with premium features requires a significant investment,” Amazon said in the statement accompanying the announcement. “This structure also aligns with other large streaming services, while ensuring customers have the flexibility to choose how they want to watch content.”
The new Amazon Ultra plan will come into effect in the United States on April 10. Prime members will continue to have access to the same catalog of series and movies, but they will no longer be able to stream it in 4K without paying the new monthly supplement. Among the most popular titles available on the platform are productions such as The Boys and Fallout.
For the moment, Amazon assures that this change does not imply an increase in the price of the general Prime subscription, although it has not ruled out that this may change in the future.
The decision comes at a time when many users criticize the tendency of large digital platforms to increasingly divide their services into different payment levels. In recent years, several companies in the sector have introduced ads into basic plans or added additional features behind more expensive subscriptions.
For some consumers, these measures reduce the perceived value of services that originally promised a more complete experience within a single monthly fee. In the case of Amazon Prime, the elimination of 4K streaming at no additional cost could become a new point of friction for part of its user base.
Meanwhile, those who want to continue enjoying their favorite series and movies with the highest image quality available on the platform will have to assume this new monthly cost. In other words, watching 4K content within Prime Video will no longer be an included benefit and become a premium feature.
This article has been translated from Kotaku US by Agustín Azcarate. Here you can find the original version.
