And streaming video furthers its devolution into fragmented cable tv...
Amazon to add limited ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024
31–40 of 102 posts
Re: Amazon to add limited ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024
#32There's a crucial difference between what Netflix did and this. Netflix added a new lower-priced ad-supported option, leaving existing subscribers as they were. Amazon however is pushing ads onto existing subscribers and adding a new ad-free option to which one has to upgrade. This burns a lot of goodwill. It just ain't nice. I will be cancelling the subscription once this hits my country as a matter of principle.
While this is true, Netflix hiked prices massively over the years. Their 4K/HDR offering is 17.99 EUR per month here. Amazon Prime including Prime Video is still 8.99 EUR/month, cheaper if paid yearly, without any surcharge for 4K/HDR. So that's more than twice the price for a comparable streaming service.
I cancelled Netflix and will resubscribe for a month over Christmas; they did me a favour with that one.
Re: Amazon to add limited ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024
#33Interesting how every subscription business is slowly turning to the traditional ad-supported model. People might refuse it, but ad-supported is one of the most efficient business models on both the consumer side and business side. Allows more customers to access a service, for free, with the same quality. Plus, every company needs marketing, and even consumers need it. It allows us to notice things we might need in…
Interesting in that once consumers get a taste of an ad-free platform, forever will they wish to return. Ads may be the only way media content as a business makes any money but this really is more telling of where Prime is today. They are losing money. I refuse to watch ads. I block them on all my devices. I don’t watch networks and content that has them. I’ve had a taste of an ad free world and I will do everything in my power to return. If I have a need for something, I’ll research. I would rather go back to pirating content than $20/mo for “limited ads”. It’s fucking Cable all over again.
Re: Amazon to add limited ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024
#34The main reason I dropped prime is that the shipping stopped working. Two days slipped most of the time. But what put me over the edge was their music stopped being included, it was another fee to remove adds and unlock everything. And video had these annoying preroll ads. Frequently for things I already watched. Now there will be ads throughout and it’s a monthly fee to get what was free. I do like some prime shows…
The big issue in my opinion is that movie execs have this misguided belief that if you stop people from pirating your content, every prevented download will turn into a sale at full price. But I expect that people will simply stop watching mediocre movie and low-effort series. Or wait for rebates, like those people who avoid cinema and then rent the bluray later. As a result of this misunderstanding, they try technic…
Same thing with the music industry fighting torrents for years until finally accepting that people will gladly pay a fair price.
Re: Amazon to add limited ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024
#35Interesting how every subscription business is slowly turning to the traditional ad-supported model. People might refuse it, but ad-supported is one of the most efficient business models on both the consumer side and business side. Allows more customers to access a service, for free, with the same quality. Plus, every company needs marketing, and even consumers need it. It allows us to notice things we might need in…
There's a necessity in society for some form of advertising. People and businesses want to communicate what products and services are available. If a random person wants the ability to start their own business, they're going to need the ability to advertise that they have a new product that they want people to try. Or they want to advertise that there's some societal issue that they want people to be aware of.
Consider a world with zero ads. There wouldn't be annoying interruptions. But we also wouldn't ever learn which new movies are playing, which political candidates are running, etc, except from 2nd and 3rd hand sources with several layers of spin (and misunderstanding/misinformation) on the information.
I personally hate the current state of direct advertising. There seems to be zero prevention of fraud and zero work towards making ads less annoying. I wish that consensual forms of media could convey all that information instead, in an unbiased, informed, and timely manner. Unfortunately that isn't currently happening for several reasons (media underfunding, editorial conflicts of interest, personalized content streams that preclude any sort of unexpected news).
I'm not sure what the solution is overall. I think if every company didn't deliver absolute buckets of trash to their own email marketing lists, then we wouldn't block them and they wouldn't have to pay to ruin our other media.
Re: Amazon to add limited ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024
#36There's a crucial difference between what Netflix did and this. Netflix added a new lower-priced ad-supported option, leaving existing subscribers as they were. Amazon however is pushing ads onto existing subscribers and adding a new ad-free option to which one has to upgrade. This burns a lot of goodwill. It just ain't nice. I will be cancelling the subscription once this hits my country as a matter of principle.
They obviously have the advantage of people having Prime for deliveries and the inertia required to change shopping habits. Like you, I think this is a step too far and I will gladly suffer the inconvenience of buying stuff from other retailers in the future.
> I will gladly suffer the inconvenience of buying stuff from other retailers in the future
Tried it and failed. Higher prices, costly 5 day "express" shipping and questionable / non-existent return policies - the time and effort required to wade through is not worth it.
I want to not use Amazon too - but other retailers make it really really hard.
Re: Amazon to add limited ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024
#37[dead]
Re: Amazon to add limited ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024
#38The entire Prime Video thing for me has never been anything more than a parasitic money-suck for my two-day shipping.
Re: Amazon to add limited ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024
#39Interesting how every subscription business is slowly turning to the traditional ad-supported model. People might refuse it, but ad-supported is one of the most efficient business models on both the consumer side and business side. Allows more customers to access a service, for free, with the same quality. Plus, every company needs marketing, and even consumers need it. It allows us to notice things we might need in…
There's a necessity in society for some form of advertising. People and businesses want to communicate what products and services are available. If a random person wants the ability to start their own business, they're going to need the ability to advertise that they have a new product that they want people to try. Or they want to advertise that there's some societal issue that they want people to be aware of. Consid…
>There's a necessity in society for some form of advertising
Objectively false
Re: Amazon to add limited ads to Prime Video starting in early 2024
#40The entire tech industry is going through some massive enshittification. This ads nonsense is everywhere now. Why the f should anyone pay for a subscription if they are going to be shown some ads?
People do it all the time. Cable tv.