The annual price of an Amazon Prime membership is going up 17% to $139 a year, Amazon said Thursday during its fourth-quarter earnings report.
Those on monthly payment terms will see their price increase from $12.99 a month to $14.99. The price increase will take effect for new customers on Feb. 18. Existing customers will be affected starting March 25.
It's Amazon's first Prime membership fee increase since 2018.
Notably, the price increase does not impact those customers who choose only to subscribe to Amazon Prime Video, which will remain priced at $8.99 a month.
Amazon -- which beat equity analysts consensus forecasts for Q4 with a $12 billion profit, driven partly by its investment in electric car company Rivian -- attributed to Prime membership increase to investments in such things as Amazon Studios output, as well as expensive programming rights deals with entities such as the National Football League.
Amazon said it spent $13 billion in 2021 producing films and TV shows, up 18% year over year. It also said it has tripled the amount of movies and original series it produces through Amazon Studios since 2018.
“Amazon continues to invest heavily in Prime. In the last few years, we’ve added more product selection available with fast, free, unlimited Prime shipping; more exclusive deals and discounts; and more high-quality digital entertainment, including TV, movies, music and books,” Jamil Ghani, VP of Amazon Prime, said in a statement.
The $13 billion content budget for 2021 is in line with projections published by Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger last June. Amazon is only the sixth biggest spender on content, trailing NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia, Discovery, Disney and Netflix.
