Amazon Prime Starting Ads on Jan. 29

[Mark Jeffries]

They said they were going to do it and they are, but there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth on social media when they started sending out Emails to subscribers this week--if you don't want commercials, plunk down $3.99 more a month, just like you plunk down more for everyone else:

https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-prime-video-ads-date/

[Doug Eastick]

I saw that announcement.

There's a decent thread on Mastodon about the continued enshittification of Amazon.

https://mastodon.social/@angusm/111657952280392738

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

/Doug
eas...@mcd.on.ca

On Thu, Dec 28, 2023, 13:18 Mark Jeffries <spotl...@gmail.com> wrote:

They said they were going to do it and they are, but there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth on social media when they started sending out Emails to subscribers this week--if you don't want commercials, plunk down $3.99 more a month, just like you plunk down more for everyone else:

https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-prime-video-ads-date/

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[Kevin M.]

I am to the point where, when we find a series we like on any of the streaming platforms, I go to iTunes and buy it, because inevitably we will go back to watch an episode and it will have been removed. 

Kevin M. (RPCV)

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[PGage]

I got their email this week, but they said it was $2.99/month (not $3.99) to avoid the ads. They said they will have “meaningfully” fewer ads than linear tv and other streamers. 

As noted here on other threads, The default is to accept the ads, unlike other services, where the default was to accept the extra payment, and you had to do something to go with ads.

If the ads are minimal, and they’re mostly at the beginning of programs, I may stay with the basic service. I’m gonna try it for a little while and see how it goes.

Sent from Gmail Mobile

On Thu, 28 Dec 2023 at 10:17 AM Mark Jeffries <spotl...@gmail.com> wrote:

They said they were going to do it and they are, but there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth on social media when they started sending out Emails to subscribers this week--if you don't want commercials, plunk down $3.99 more a month, just like you plunk down more for everyone else:

https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-prime-video-ads-date/

[Doug Eastick]

I should add... that after I saw that announcement I looked into it from a Canadian perspective.     Doesn't look like it applies to us yet.   I pay $9.99 CAD per month for Amazon Prime (the shipping and some discounts) and also get Prime Video (movies, some TV shows) included.

of course, our content library offered by Prime Video is probably much more limited than the US

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[Adam Bowie]

It's starting in the UK from 5 February and it'll cost us £2.99 a month to avoid. From the BBC report on it:

"Customers in the US and Canada will see ads earlier from 29 January, and Amazon plans to expand them to France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia later in 2024."

So I'm not sure Canadians will avoid it. I would also note that I've yet to receive an email about this, but I guess they've got a bit over a month to let me know.

I'm inclined to switch to the ad tier for now, but one decent new series that I want to watch, and I'll pay the £2.99. I just downgraded Netflix from 4K to HD (I can't tell the difference on my 49" set), so the "savings" from that can perhaps pay for Amazon.

Adam

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[Marti Lawrence]

We're going to give it a chance with the ads, as they claim they will only be at the beginning of a show, which will air uninterrupted after that. 

~Marti

[PGage]

As promised, ads started this week on Amazon. I started and finished “Mr and Mrs Smith over last few days (2 thumbs up, so much better than the movie) and found the ads to be just this side of tolerable. They do not interrupt the program, and there is only 1 or 2 of them at the start of each episode, mostly (not only) for Amazon stuff, nothing too obnoxious. 

It may get worse, as I am prepared for them to try to slowly increase the number of ad minutes, but for now will probably continue to save the $4/month. 

It does rob the viewer of one of the main pleasures of streaming, for me anyway, which is to go directly into the next episode without interruption. I wonder if there is less marathoning with ad supported streaming?

[Jim Ellwanger]

“Hazbin Hotel” actually had no preroll ads, but did have one 15-second ad in the middle of each episode (at a natural-ish break point). I wonder if Amazon is doing some A/B testing on ad placement.

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[PGage]

That’s good to know. If I start running into in-episode ads I will go ad-free.

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[Marti Lawrence]

We have been streaming some older programs on Prime, and sadly, they have the ads roughly halfway through.  Sometimes it was only 30 seconds, but then it got to where it said, "Ad 1 of 2" and there was a countdown clock showing how many seconds were left of the minute or so of commercials. 

We found it distracting enough to grudgingly pay the extra money for ad-free. 

~Marti

[Doug Eastick]

I appreciate those footnotes that say "1 of 3 ads remaining" because it gives me the opportunity to decide if I can run to the kitchen or bathroom, like it was the 1980's and most commercial breaks were 4x30 seconds (2 minutes).

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