Internet Streaming Takes Hit as Amazon Prime Hikes UK Prices
The UK market for broadband-based video streaming services, which is already under pressure from the ever-increasing problem of content fragmentation across too many platforms, looks set to suffer another blow today after Amazon announced that prices for their Prime Video would be hiked for the first time since 2014.
In a new letter, which has been issued this week by Amazon, the company revealed that the price of a monthly Prime membership will increase from £7.99 to £8.99 from 15th September 2022, while the price of annual membership will go from £79 to £95.
In fairness, Amazon’s Prime service isn’t just about streaming as customers also benefit from free deliveries on many orders, as well as access to more e-books, limited music streaming and special product sale events, among various other things. Put another way, if you order a lot of tat from Amazon then it may even save you money across the course of a year.
On the other hand, the company’s recent move to invest in premium live TV sport content is something that has divided opinion. TV sport is an expensive gamble and not everybody wants to see it, which is why other operators tend to put it into a separate package. But Amazon prefers to make everybody share the burden of its risk, whether you want to watch sport or not.
Copy of Amazon’s Customer Email
Dear Prime Member,
Thank you for being a valued member of Amazon Prime. We are writing to you about an upcoming change to your membership.
As of 15 September 2022, the price of the monthly Prime membership will increase from £7.99 to £8.99, and the price of the annual Prime membership will increase from £79 to £95. The new price will apply to renewals starting 15 September 2022. You can view your next renewal date, manage, or cancel your membership by visiting your account.
We continue to focus on making Prime even more valuable for members. This is the first time we have changed the price of Prime in the UK since 2014. During this time, we have significantly increased the number of products available with unlimited, fast Prime delivery; added and expanded ultra-fast fresh grocery delivery; and added more high-quality digital entertainment, including TV, movies, music, games, and books. Prime Video in particular has increased the number of TV series and movies on offer, including Amazon Originals, as well as live sports coverage, such as the Premier League and Autumn Nations Series.
Sincerely,
Your Amazon Prime Team
Despite all the competition between so many platforms, the price we all pay for such services has continued to rise rather than fall, as providers invest in more content to broaden their appeal. But the combination of content fragmentation (i.e. you need to spend big to access all the content you want via lots of providers) and ever rising prices is, during a stark cost-of-living crisis, starting to hurt.
According to a recent study from Kantar, some 1.51 million services were cancelled in the first quarter of 2022 as UK consumers moved to cut their spending. But many have tended to retain their Amazon Prime service, due in part to its wider benefits and the stability of price, yet today’s announcement may change that.
A number of streaming platforms are also looking to introduce advertising in the future (NOW TV already does this), which will probably add to the level of churn, no matter how positively they try to sell it. Historically, advertising is often sold as a way of keeping prices low, but what often ends up happening is that prices continue to rise at more or less the same pace they always did before.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Looks like it’s time for me to find that eye-patch
I do it all the time that onion is my best friend)
I’ve now cancelled my Prime membership.
Monthly works out an extra £1 per month but annual works out at an extra £1.33 per month. This is unfair as Amazon has our money upfront. If the annual rise was the same as monthly then I might have reluctantly accepted.
Or you could just buy another year up front now before they increase their prices (if you can afford of course)
My annual renewal is 29th Aug, so I get nearly a year at the old price.
Actually a reduction on the normal monthly subscription costs or 24p a week increase on the current monthly subs.. but if you only watch prime video then could just buy a smart Tv .. if you don’t do the food shop music ..books..clothing..or the other services then may not be viable then again a smart TV would be several 100
I cancelled Netflix few months back, looks like i’ll be canceling Prime now too, they just not worth the extra money these days. they both full of mundane, woke, boring shows now.
In the SVOD market Prime Video subscription numbers are rising whilst those of Netflix are falling, and these numbers will be roughly similar by 2027. So, Amazon feels able to hike prices without suffering too much churn.
Cancelling when mine runs out. Not paying Amazon more. I don’t watch 99% of it and I’m tired of adverts when you pay.
Yeah I’m also going to cancel when my year is up its not worth it content not great there own made dont offer usually HD view version that I want don’t want adverts and not interested in woke contents so forth.
This is to pay for the billion they are spending in butchering Lord of the Rings. It’s absolutely ridiculous how far they are going with its wokification. There is a funny new channel on youtube pointing out how many lore violations and everything wrong with the show so if you’re interested watch that instead https://www.youtube.com/c/CounciloftheRings
The only good show in there is The Boys anyway
Hi John,
I’ve got some great news for you! It turns out – no one is going to forcibly hold your head in place whilst holding your eyelids open to watch the “wokified” LOTR!
You’re entirely free to just not watch it or moan about it!
In the meantime I think it’s worthwhile anyone who has a view on BBC streaming feeds into the current consultation at
https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/reports/consultation/bbc-iplayer-public-interest-test/
It’s open until 4/8/22 and I for one would love more free content from their archives. I don’t think that would stymie competition which was an early Ofcom concern to give small players a market foothold.
I will be cancelling the membership as well. I also think that the price of digital media is a total ripoff and having to pay up to £15.99 for a film with no physical copy is ludacris. There also should be some type of protection so I’ve had films removed that I own on iTunes with out a refund and no warnings
piracy is the way to go rip off prices sky tv amazon prime netflix ect
@bent the illiteracy really gives you away, Phil.
So competition comes out from all sides. And the way Netflix and Amazon deal with this is by raising their prices. Soon Amazon will be reporting record cancellations of their service and trying to suggest its all due to account sharing or something…..
It’s even going up for students, here’s my email:
Dear Prime Member,
Thank you for being a valued member of Amazon Prime. We are writing to you about an upcoming change to your membership.
As of 15 September 2022, the price of the monthly Prime Student membership will increase from £3.99 to £4.49, and the price of the annual Prime Student membership will increase from £39.00 to £47.49. The new price will apply to renewals starting 15 September 2022. You can view your next renewal date, manage, or cancel your membership by visiting your account.
We continue to focus on making Prime even more valuable for members. This is the first time we have changed the price of Prime in the UK since 2014. During this time, we have significantly increased the number of products available with unlimited, fast Prime delivery; added and expanded ultra-fast fresh grocery delivery; and added more high-quality digital entertainment, including TV, movies, music, games, and books. Prime Video in particular has increased the number of TV series and movies on offer, including Amazon Originals, as well as live sports coverage, such as the Premier League and Autumn Nations Series.
Sincerely,
Your Amazon Prime Team
Crazy that we subsidies a bunch of students so they can watch tv shows for cheap they could have not raised prices and done away with the agist outdated sub level
You can be a student at any age last time i checked
I had a student subscription in my 40s, Mr Twain. Student discounts are offered in the hope those people that on average have higher incomes will become loyal to brands.
If you’ve a problem with that you must hate all the companies providing introductory offers.
So it should they are better off that most
Cancelled as well. I was already annoyed about programs/films on Prime that you have to pay extra for in order to watch, on top of what already is being paid a month. So Amazon Prime for films/video IS NOT just that one off charge.
As for faster deliveries next by Prime, that is the biggest con going. When you order without Prime but order enough for free Amazon delivery, it’s simply held back at the warehouse for a couple of days before being sent out so it deliberately takes longer, it still arrives by the same carrier the following day it left the warehouse. So it costs Amazon nothing extra in carrier fees when they do next day Prime deliveries.
You got to understand its cheaper then Netflix they offer way more stuff like live sports, next day delivery, music etc..
In this current climate with the cost of inflation going over the roof they are still cheaper then anyone else in my opinion.
Dont you guys know there are Free apps that have Prime, netflix, over 1000 channels, sports etc… Free Im just using them on my firestick tv friendly navigation nonly broadband which is hyperoptic 1gbps speeds and tv licence nothing extra.
Do some research been using them apps for over 5 years which get updated on a regular basis.
Those apps are illegal
Parasite.
Illigal apps they are but don’t moan if price are going up its normal for things to go up.
You guys are expecting the price to stay the same forever Amazon didn’t increase the price of prime snice 2014 then all of a sudden you guys complain and blame the service you guys are getting you guys crank me up
Before price increase no complaints.
Think the complaint is more about you sponging off of other customers by using dodgy streaming, Zakir.
You don’t pay for your content. You don’t pay market rate for your housing. I remember you complaining about job opportunities meanwhile you can’t spell ‘illegal’ even when it’s in the post you’re replying to which might well explain why you don’t have a better job, assuming you’re employed.
i ordered something on amazon and when it came it had an invoice that said find us on amazon and ebay so i looked up the seller on ebay and found my item a lot cheaper so since then i compare both sites and usually end up getting it on ebay also amazon dont make it easy to buy without GET PRIME in BIG letters and no in small ones
Isn’t this paying for their football rights and other sports rights they’ve paid for?
Most of the streaming subscriptions going up now; that’s their plan as they think people will just keep on paying (Sky have been successful in that respect over the years, often a number of people thinking that terrestrial content is suddenly Sky’s offering and sports that used to be on BBC/ITV without additional expensive subscriptions.)
Why cant you have prime (cheaper option tier) without music and videos. Not everyone wants that bundled in. They wont do it because they know most would ditch that bit and bundling makes them advertise it as “all this stuff” for the price.
The only thing I really use Amazon Prime for is the delivery aspect, if I could pay less and only keep that aspect then I’d likely do so. The only thing I recall watching on Prime Video was Picard, other than that I haven’t watched other content on Prime Video – woke or otherwise.
I’ll have to look into whether it’s going to be cheaper for me in the long run to no longer be a member in comparison to the upcoming price hike. Fortunately my subscription doesn’t expire until early next year.
+100
Well glad I don’t pay anymore when my furestick said our of range and I was in America….not they failed to reimburse me so I said by to amazon and prime.
If pay for Prime annually you can tick a box in your account area to be notified 3 days before renewal at higher price (if you want to cancel).
This is a really kick in pants from amazon.
I am not interested in sports, or advertisement as a lot only free with that worse force you to actually watch can not say fast forward them as well as on very often & long.
And the one for renting books is not same for same day delivery with prime pay different for that.
So only thing get with prime member ship is same day delivery and occasional stream and of them only decant one is the boys series really rest not so great.
Add to all new in UHD and HDR only when I want HD is very annoying. (HD usually better picture for me.)
Should make so cost hike only effect those want sport or music as added price and if don’t want then then get cheaper without them, but nope wont do very dissapointing.
I will also be cancelling amazone prime at end of year pre-paid subscription.
Amazon is going lose a lot of customers by doing this, it’s just not worth it anymore especially when not giving what want or doing crap like doing with lord of rings or the shit that was picard series.
It will only loose those stupid enough to cancel it then pay 400quid to buy a smart TV to stream bbciplayer…
First in 8 years price increase for the whole one pound. In 2014 my salary was £30k, today my salary is £78k p.a. really devastating. What are you talking about guys?
What are you talking about? It’s more than a pound over a typical year sign up. It’s also way over inflation for a yearly sub. Wages are typically 1 to 4% increase for most people by employers….
It is a one pound a month more a way less then typical salary rise in last 8 years and way less than inflation in last 8 years.
Well said it’s just a quid… Makes me chuckle half the idiots on here likely haven’t even got it and those that have moan about it yet likely pay 15quid to Netflix for just a movie and show steaming app yet don’t realise the 6 quid cheaper prime is Amazon prime membership that includes prime video..free deliver…music…shopping.. e books..and most importantly the ability to turn any standard TV in to a smart TV via a cheap firestick.. the jobs of folk moaning about a hike…we get the same idiots moaning about broadband prices yet spend half there living life on the broadband and yet still got still 2 quid a litre petrol in and pay BBC licence fee and council tax lol
I do believe all the ideas you have introduced for your post
S7even
I think you’ll find that all these “idiots” aren’t just seeing Prime increase. My monthly shopping bill has risen from £50 on average to £95-£110, I’m not buying anything different but some items have been increased by 200% or more in just 6 months. Petrol whilst it has reduced from the ridiculous levels seen, still hasn’t gone down to previous levels despite the barrel price falling.
My electricity has been increased from £24.50/m to £108.99/m. I’m currently getting the government help until January when they intend to raise it yet again.
So are people struggling with the cost of living for essentials, yeah they can well are.