Amazon’s Prime Video will begin showing adds during shows and movies early next year, joining other streaming services that have added different tiers of subscriptions.
Amazon Prime Video will soon come with ads, or a $2.99 monthly charge to dodge them::Amazon’s Prime Video will begin showing ads during shows and movies early next year.
I think Prime is up to $140 a year now. They used to promise 2 day delivery, but that is now 2 day shipping, and delays prior to shipment aren't counted. We are not renewing when it comes up later this month. It's no longer worth it.
I swear the actual gain from prime is virtually indecipherable. The less you understand it, the less you can actually complain about what you are paying for.
It also does not boost my confidence when they use deceptive patterns to sneak you back into prime, or keep you from leaving.
The average person doesn't give a hoot though, and will get actively upset at you for pointing out deceptive patterns when it's a brand they use, so I we can probably expect things to get worse whenever physically possible.
Fun fact. If your cancel prime and dont order that frequently they will offer a month free over and over no matter how times they've given you free months. Then i do a whole buncha ordering in that one month and cancel prime. Free prime forever.
We cancelled back in 2022. It was noticable for about a month, then we got used to buying much less and going to a store for what we needed. I feel better about buying directly from a company's site when I need to get their product online and most places offer free shipping anyway.
same tbf, but this might be the reason they are doing it, they know a majority of the users only use it cause it's there, and the ones who will care enough would buy the ad free. Less cost on bandwidth and more money from ads or subscriptions. It's a win-win for them
During COViD, I did get addicted to Prime, so I guess they’re just trying to help with the cure? Anyhow, now I can goto stores again, plus my kids are off on their own so it’s just me, so it does seem excessive. Actually,Prime TV has already gotten harder to watch, as they keep steering g you to ad supported networks. Just when I get less use out of it, they raise their prices and add ads?
Prime Video isn't profitable and they need it to be. They included it with Prime to build a user base but they were always going to charge or make you watch ads after that. And that's perfectly fine because running a service that's never going to make any money is fucking stupid.
If you don't like it, don't pay but stop with that "big corp makes enough money so keep giving me shit for free" bullshit.
Would love to read your pitch for a streaming service that doesn't charge money and doesn't show any ads though
I have been a Prime member since 2014 and joined exclusively for Prime Video access. Of course nothing is free. I am now going to pay more, yes you heard right, and will choose to continue being a paying member even at the higher cost, so that I can receive the SAME service and not have it degraded with ads. I hate ads and for all the services I subscribe to, 4 video streaming and 1 music streaming, I always pay the premium to not see ads.
You need to have a good hard look at yourself if you think defending Amazon puts you on the right ethical side of the fence. These cheap extra ad based profits, that deliver no new customer value, will not go to raising the low salaries many of their workforce endure, or relieve the pressure with their mandated 6% non-regrettable attrition policies, or stop their practices of stealing designs from small businesses and undercutting them with Amazon branded equivalents, or ensure taxes are paid in the relevant countries, or prevent further large scale lay offs.
This additional subscription cost is a first world problem for me but Amazon is not only an easy target for constant criticism, but a deserving one.
I use it for shopping. I live in the country side, not a lot of options around here, and in a country where the concept of free shipping does not exist. So Prime saves me a lot. I barely use prime video though...
Was going to say the same. You get so much shit from Prime Gaming. Given, half of it is actual shit that you’ll never use. But if you play games on PC, it’s something worth looking into.
Plex is clamping down on uses violating the TOS though. They're banning whole hosting provider IP blocks next month that were popular with people selling access to Plex servers.
I've also seen reports of them banning individual users sharing large libraries with family and friends over residential connections. And then sending notifications to those people that their friend/family member was running a commercial piracy operation.
Lol its trillion dollar company. What they are doing is a tactic to check if consumers will leave their streaming service. They know few people will leave but they don't care however most people won't and will be paying more that usual.
Well it's a stupid move because it's bundled with everything. I am not going to pay for add free, I am just going to cancel after Christmas shopping is done. That means I will be less likely to buy from Amazon in the future. It's not like anything comes in 2 days anymore anyway.
There's already services out there where you pay like $20 a year and can stream basically anything, no need to download anything. Access to pretty much any show on Netflix, Amazon, apple, Disney, etc with about a days delay from new episodes. Can even stream movies still in theater, although it's hit and miss on those can be more like a week or two from release before you can stream them reliably.
On one hand, it is quite cheap but on the other hand their catalog is very bad. I wonder how long will these streaming services survive before they go all the way through the enshittification and kill themselves.
Crazy because I feel like their catalog was better at one point, but has gotten worse as studios make their own services and claw back their programs into them.
I guess being a trillion dollar company isn't enough for them, you see. It has to go into quintillion, and then into infinity profits. And also poor Amazon is so poor they can't provide the user free grocery delivery, UPS pick up anymore, or even Prime video.
So glad I canceled prime about 9 months ago at our annual renewal. Turns out, packages arrive within a couple days regardless. It’ll say Thur but arrive Tue, consistently.
Amazon Prime is a yearly subscription that gets you discounts on on shipping on stuff you order from Amazon... and gets you access to Prime Video.
It doesn't seem clear from the article whether the ads or 2.99 fee will get someone access to the streaming service without having the Prime shipping service. Probably not, since disentangling these services would be good, and Amazon only does evil things.
IIRC they also sell only Prime Video already if you really want it, though it's usually a better deal to get the free shipping too. I presume this applies to both.
Amazon Prime Video will include advertising during shows and movies starting early next year, joining other streaming services that have added different tiers of subscriptions.
Members of Amazon Prime can pay $2.99 per month in the U.S. to keep their service ad-free, the company said Friday.
Disney will begin charging $13.99 a month in the U.S. for ad-free Disney+ in mid-October, 75% more than the ad-supported service.
Ads in Prime Video content will start in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada in early 2024, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in the year.
For U.S. users, Amazon said it will send out an email to Prime members several weeks before ads are introduced into its programs with information on how to sign up for the ad-free option if they choose to do so.
Members also get free shipping for goods bought on Amazon.com, groceries, online music and more.
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