By Claire Moses
If you were planning on watching the final season of “Jack Ryan” or eight seasons of “House” without commercials on Amazon Prime this year, get ready to dig a little deeper into your pockets.
In September, Amazon announced it would soon add advertisements to Prime Video, its streaming service, and last week announced when that change would go into effect: Jan 29. Customers wanting to avoid the ads would have to pay an extra $2.99 a month.
Less than a decade ago, the streaming era took off on the promise of letting users cut the cord from expensive cable bills and enjoy a blissful ad-free viewing experience. But as we enter 2024, Amazon isn’t the only service bringing back ads or driving prices higher.
Studios and streaming companies that make all this entertainment say that they are struggling and that it’s getting increasingly hard to attract new customers. The result is higher prices, or plans that are cheaper but include ads.
There are also other measures. This fall, Netflix announced a price hike and said it would start clamping down on users who share their passwords with people outside their households for free.
To help you make a choice for the new year, here’s what some of the main streaming services will cost and what they will offer. (All prices are in U.S. dollars and apply to U.S. accounts.)
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon executives have said that including the video service helped keep people subscribed to its Prime memberships, which include free shipping.
In 2022, the company completed its purchase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer — and, crucially, its extensive catalog of movies and television shows, including titles including James Bond, which is available on Prime Video.
The current price for an Amazon Prime membership is $14.99 a month (or $139 per year). Prime Video by itself is $8.99 a month. For ad-free viewing, Amazon will add $2.99 per month to your bill starting Jan. 29. And take note: If you opt into a free trial, Amazon will automatically start charging you after it ends.
Apple TV+
In 2019, Apple announced that it would start creating its own television shows and movies at an extremely star-studded event in California. The streaming service offers Apple originals — “Severance” and “Ted Lasso” — and a subscription can be shared with up to five people. There are no ads.
A monthly subscription for the streaming service costs $9.99. Apple also offers three free months when you buy one of its devices.
Disney+
For $7.99 a month, subscribers get content with ads. For $13.99 a month (or $139.99 a year) you can stream Disney+ without ads and download content for when you’re offline.
Its offerings include Pixar and Disney movies as well as “Star Wars” and Marvel movies and TV shows, 34 seasons of “The Simpsons” and about 7,500 episodes of old Disney-branded shows.
Max
Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled this combined streaming service in April, rebranding the former HBO Max. An ad-free experience will cost you $15.99 a month. An “Ultimate ad-free” version for $19.99 allows users to add more devices to the account as well as up to 100 downloads. For a $9.99 add-on per month, you can also watch live sports.
Max offers the “Harry Potter” movies, classic HBO shows such as “The Wire,” “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City,” as well as newer releases, such as “Barbie.” The streamer has also ordered a “Harry Potter” TV series.
Hulu
For $17.99 a month you can watch Hulu’s vast catalog — titles include “New Girl,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “Fargo” — without ads. If you’re willing to sit through commercials, it’s $7.99 a month.
Hulu also offers the option of adding live television to your plan, as well as content from other streaming services such as Disney+ and ESPN+, although the latter does come with ads. Those options range from $75.99 to $89.99 a month.
Netflix
Raise your hand if you remember getting DVDs from Netflix in the mail in the early 2000s. In 2010, Netflix started selling its streaming service for $8 a month and offering one DVD at a time for an additional $2.
Netflix now offers a $6.99 per month subscription that is ad-supported, which the company says “allows you to enjoy movies and TV shows at a lower price.” A standard plan (without ads) is $15.49 a month. For access to more devices, the cost goes up to $22.99 a month. Adding people who aren’t included in your subscription will cost you an additional $7.99 per person per month. Netflix mailed its last DVD in September.
Among its offerings: “Gilmore Girls,” “La La Land” and international series such as “Squid Game.”
Paramount+
In 2021, CBS rebranded its streaming platform, which it heralded as “a big day, a new day, a new beginning.” That announcement came with promises of a “Frasier” reboot and a revival of the animated series “Rugrats.”
A lot of other Paramount content can be found elsewhere. The company sold the rights to the “South Park” library to HBO Max, and series such as “Jack Ryan,” produced by Paramount, have gone to Amazon.
Paramount+ Essential will cost you $5.99 a month (or $59.99 a year) and includes “limited commercial interruptions.” The service also offers a bundle together with Showtime in a plan that costs $11.99 a month (or $119.99 a year).
Peacock
The premium subscription for NBC Universal’s streaming service will cost you $5.99 a month and includes original content, films, live sporting events and more. A Premium Plus subscription is $11.99 a month and offers — mostly — no ads as well as the ability to download content.
Some of the programs you can watch include “Parks and Recreation,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Downton Abbey” and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” as well as Bravo content including the “Real Housewives” franchise.