Amazon plans to take on Netflix with an ad-supported streaming service

In order to better compete against rivals like Netflix, Amazon may launch a free, ad-supported streaming video service at some point early next year, The New York Post has learned. Not many details about the new service are available at this time, and it’s not known what Amazon will call it, but it’ll apparently be available for free and will not be tethered to Amazon Prime, which already offers unlimited video streaming to subscribers.

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is primed and ready for a fresh assault on the streaming-video space. The e-commerce giant will roll out a new ad-supported streaming offering early next year that will be separate from its $99-a-year Prime membership, which includes a video service, sources said. The ad-supported option — part of an overhaul of its media offerings — poses a serious challenge to streaming rivals such as Hulu and Netflix, analysts said. “If they do an ad-supported service, they will decouple it from Prime and that is a Netflix killer,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said. “It won’t be $99 a year.” Pachter suggested Amazon would undercut Netflix’s current monthly price of $7.99.