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Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

bbc.co.uk

121–130 of 335 posts

Re: Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

#121
post #69

Imagine a world where a guy worth over 150 billion dollars who owns a company worth over a trillion dollars and has a quasi-monopoly over the internet is in such desperate need of more money to the point where he's going to put advertising on his video platform, even though people already pay for the platform. Instead of raising prices moderately, or putting better content on the platform, they decide to instead put…

> Some people just don't have the ability to say "yeah, we've got enough". It seems fairly clear to me that having more stuff makes people more greedy. And, yes, there is causation there, not just correlation. You can even see this in young children. Give a pack of preschoolers a mountain of toys, more than they could possibly use, and they will immediately begin hoarding and fighting over them. Give that exact same…

> It seems fairly clear to me that having more stuff makes people more greedy. And, yes, there is causation there, not just correlation.

My hypothesis for this is that wealth isn't free; the more you have, the more expensive maintaining it is, the more rapidly it'll evaporate if you fail to maintain it, and the worse it'll hurt. In case of Amazon, it's probably less that they're bored and are coveting more money for no reason - it's more likely that they face the usual pressures for growth and continue to seek opportunities to squeeze more money out of people.

> You can even see this in young children. Give a pack of preschoolers a mountain of toys, more than they could possibly use, and they will immediately begin hoarding and fighting over them. Give that exact same group of preschoolers three empty cardboard boxes and a wooden spoon, and they will use them as props in a cooperative game.

I question that. I have two small children, and whether they're dealing with a mountain of toys, or three pans and a wooden spoon, they'll switch between fighting over a single thing and playing cooperatively every couple minutes. They're very quick to get into a fight, and even quicker to make up again.

Re: Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

#122
post #41

Time to write a 'VCR' for Prime lol.

It strikes me that auto-stripping ads after DVRing the shows should be a pretty simple AI problem these days.

Given how ads tend to be louder than the content, you could probably detect it based on the average audio level without any fancy AI

Re: Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need a streaming aggregator for the cycle to be complete.

At least one telecom provider in Canada has already started doing that [0]. I expect it won't be long before others join in. [0] https://www.telus.com/en/streamplus

My Cable TV package comes with at least 5 different streaming platforms. I only have said package because it actually brings my bills total cost down, somehow.

Re: Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

#124

And we are back to the cable model! We did it everyone! We cut the cable and chained ourselves to the tech companies!

Why can't cable companies innovate and spend billions in VC money to subsidize cable and make it $5/mo?

Re: Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

#125
post #48

I flat out do not watch ads. If a platform has ads, I do not watch it full stop. I pay YouTube for no ads. If I lost that option, I would not watch YouTube. Same with all of the other streaming services. Netflix pushed it last year with preview rolls. It was barely acceptable/tolerable. But I will eagerly jettison any service that makes me pay for ads. Heck, I even look askance at people who willingly pay money to un…

The article pretty clearly states that there's an ad free tier for an extra $3 a month.

Yup. The other way to view this story is that Amazon is raising the price of Prime by $3/month and introducing a new product, Prime with Ads, that will be $3/month less than Prime.

Re: Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

#126
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's signaling. Wearing prominent logos sends yourself and others a message that you have the disposable income to pay twice as much for a version of the thing that has a special picture on it.

Yes, agreed. It still does not explain the practice in a way that makes sense to me. There are so many and much better ways to signal disposable wealth. To me it immediately signals "more money than sense".

I think there are multiple sides to this. Some people legitimately do not care whether or not they wear branding or at least prefer to be assured of reliability of the clothing fit and quality. This approach isn't necessarily more expensive either. Something from Nike, Adias, UnderArmor sold at a discount, say at Nordstrom Rack, is superior in quality to the destined-for-landfill clothing of H&M and Primark.

I don't like branding either. For normal cotton wear, it's largely Uniqlo peppered with more unique pieces from minimally branded designers. For sportswear I tend to purchase from Lululemon because it's high quality and minimally branded. However, I understand it would be much cheaper to buy a bunch of discount Nike, Adias, or New Balance clothing. So I don't necessarily associate overt branding with disposable wealth per-se and I would say it depends on the brand and the context the clothing is being worn (but maybe that's only because of my understanding of brand differences). I would assume someone wearing all Lululemon to be more wealthy than someone wearing all Adidas even though it's less branding.

That said, certain designer brands serve only to be a status symbol like Gucci, LV, Supreme, Kenzo, Bathing Ape, Off-White, Balenziaga..the list goes on. Hell, at least if someone is driving a Mercedes or BMW they're getting a well built car, there's almost no excuse to pay more than $50 for a T-shirt just because it's from Fendi or Maison Kitsune.

As we pointed out in other comments, sneakers are an exception and it's almost impossible to find decent sneakers without branding and this probably has to do with the economies of scale.

Re: Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

#127
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just look at where cable TV is. With a cable DVR you can arbitrarily control the video stream. You never have to watch an ad if you don't want to. Amazon won't let you conveniently skip these ads. Streaming was always going to be about losing that freedom. Cable companies weren't bold enough to take that away, or it never occurred to them. The last time I had Spotify installed, it wouldn't even credit me with havin…

Even putting aside the ubiquity of tech like this: we had a particularly busy year and I ended up traveling a lot more often for work than I usually do, and it was insane to me how many fucking ads are in television now. Mind you I was a from the go cord cutter, when I left my parents and spread my wings, I never once wanted cable. I had it through them and it was... fine. Certainly not worth the absurd prices it goe…

Ads aren't going away, the war is lost, no service will leave that money on the table anymore past its temporary startup customer-friendly phase. It's not worth complaining about.

What does still matter is whether the video stream tech gives you the freedom to seek/skip or not. Then the ads become more or less moot. Plex for local media gives you freedom, sure. My cable box does. Streaming will not.

Re: Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

#128
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find me an unbranded pair of basketball shorts that will last 10 years, have consistent sizing, and cost less than $20 at an outlet and I’ll gladly buy them. I could gamble on “YAWHOHOMELIFE Men's Running Workout Shorts Training Gym Athletic Joggers Sweat Short Pants Quick Dry Breathable with Zip Pockets”, or pay like $5 more for a little white embroidered check mark and the aforementioned benefits without needing to…

This is a false dichotomy. Your choice is to pay extra for a logo, or pay less for equivalent quality but no logo. You choose logo. Why?

Even if this were the case (it's not), there's still a time cost - I have to find the brand without the logo that's the same quality. I buy athletic shorts maybe once every 2-3 years almost always on Black Friday. I know Nike shorts will be high quality, and I know they'll fit. Wading through the many non-logo brands, trying them on, returning the ones that are bad, etc. might take me several hours to save tens of dollars.

The point here is that you're misunderstanding why the logo matters. I don't care if there's a logo on my shorts or not - I care what the logo represents, which is a brand that consistently produces high-quality goods. I'm willing to pay more for that, especially when it saves me time shopping.

Re: Amazon Prime Video content to start including ads next year

#130
post #48

I flat out do not watch ads. If a platform has ads, I do not watch it full stop. I pay YouTube for no ads. If I lost that option, I would not watch YouTube. Same with all of the other streaming services. Netflix pushed it last year with preview rolls. It was barely acceptable/tolerable. But I will eagerly jettison any service that makes me pay for ads. Heck, I even look askance at people who willingly pay money to un…

Find me an unbranded pair of basketball shorts that will last 10 years, have consistent sizing, and cost less than $20 at an outlet and I’ll gladly buy them. I could gamble on “YAWHOHOMELIFE Men's Running Workout Shorts Training Gym Athletic Joggers Sweat Short Pants Quick Dry Breathable with Zip Pockets”, or pay like $5 more for a little white embroidered check mark and the aforementioned benefits without needing to…

What I've found is that "serious" equipment tends to have subdued branding, or at least has some options like that.

I have a pair of basketball shorts that are still going strong after something like 12 years. They're Nike, but the logo is black on black, so barely visible if you don't look for it. Ditto for the basketball shoes. The logo is barely visible since it's the same color as the shoe. The shoes are somewhat recognizable, though, because of the air thing at the heel.

Decathlon (French sports brand) also has gym shorts that are subdued. Small black logo on dark green cloth. They're also cheaper than the Nike shorts, but do seem flimsier. Their "running" t-shirts are great and have options with barely visible branding.

Now, motorcycling gear is a whole different story... For some reason, it's very hard to find something that doesn't look like a freaking billboard.

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