Prime Lite members will not have an ad-free experience on Amazon’s OTT platform Prime Video.
American tech giant Amazon has launched a cheaper, ad-supported membership plan called Amazon Prime Lite in India. The company has begun testing Prime Lite membership in the country in January and the service is now available pan India for an annual subscription of Rs 999.
A toned-down and more affordable version of Amazon’s annual Prime subscription, Prime Lite offers benefits like free, two-day delivery option and access to unlimited content on the company’s streaming platform Prime Video. Prime Lite members will, however, not have an ad-free experience on the OTT platform and streaming can be done only on two devices in HD quality. The regular Prime plan offers access to content at up to Ultra-HD HDR resolution on compatible devices. Also, the duration and frequency of ads for Prime Lite plans are not clear at the moment.
In addition, the company also provides Prime Lite members the option of morning delivery to select addresses for an additional Rs 175 per order. The plan further offers free no-rush shipping to eligible addresses with a flat Rs 25 cashback per order. Both Prime and Prime Lite members will have early access to “Lightning Deals and Deals of the Day” on the company’s website. Subscribers of the ad-supported plan who have an Amazon Pay ICICI Bank credit card can earn 5% cashback on purchases from Amazon.in.
While Prime Lite members will enjoy all the major benefits like Amazon Prime, some differences between the two include no access to no-cost EMI, Amazon Prime Music, free ebooks, and Prime Gaming. One can subscribe to Amazon Prime Lite via the company’s official website or through its app on an Android or iOS device.
Unlike Amazon Prime, there are no monthly or quarterly plans for Amazon Prime Lite membership and the ad-supported plan would cost Rs 999 for one year. Amazon Prime cost Rs 1,499 annually, while monthly and quarterly plans of the standard service cost Rs 299 and Rs 599 respectively. This is after the company raised the price of its monthly and quarterly subscription plans in April. Before the price hike, the monthly Prime subscription would cost Rs 179 and quarterly Rs 459.
Meanwhile, last year, another OTT giant Netflix also introduced its ad-supported subscription plan for Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The cheaper Netflix subscription plan, which is priced at $6.99 a month in the U.S., displays an average of four to five minutes of ads per hour. Netflix has not introduced its ads tier plan in India yet.
