Amazon's Prime Video is joining the growing cohort of global streaming platforms to introduce an ad-supported tier, with advertisements to be introduced to the platform's standard subscriptions in Australia in July.

In an email sent to customers the platform advised that from 2 July advertisements would be placed in Prime Video movies and TV shows, noting that it planned to have "meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming providers".

The move will see current Prime Video users, who currently pay AU$9.99 a month or AU$79 a year for access to streaming content as well as other benefits on Amazon's e-commerce platform, automatically rolled onto the new ad-tier. Users will have the option to pay an additional $2.99 per month to access an ad-free option.

The strategy diverges from the model implemented by the likes of Netflix and soon Paramount+, which have added an ad-supported tier as a cheaper alternative to their standard plans.

The US conglomerate, which recorded more than $US590 billion in revenue for the 12 months at the end of the March quarter, told consumers that the introduction of ads would allow the streamer to "continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time".