Nice. AT&T Fiber is circling my neighborhood. i'm waiting for that 1GB! I'm using Synology, too. Commercials? What commercials?
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Amazon Prime Video to Feature Ads From January 29, With $2.99 Fee to Avoid Them
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I got the email and I still feel like they broke the contract. I know it's in the TOS under the Agreement changes notice, but it still feels shady.
Like so many others, there is a time coming in the near future where people realize just how much streaming services are charging them....much like what happened with pay TV and cord cutting. I just cut the cord and most people I know are following.
Amazon Prime Video will introduce limited ads to its content starting on January 29, offering an ad-free option for an additional fee.
In an email to subscribers, Amazon confirmed that movies and TV shows on Prime Video will soon feature "limited advertisements" starting on January 29, 2024. The company assured users that Prime Video will have "meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers."
The current price of Amazon Prime subscriptions will not change, but members who prefer to avoid ads can opt for a new ad-free version at an extra cost of $2.99 per month. Amazon's email to subscribers reads:
Amazon already operates Freevee, a free, ad-supported streaming service. Competitor streaming services like Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix have also introduced ad-supported options amid rising subscription costs.
Article Link: Amazon Prime Video to Feature Ads From January 29, With $2.99 Fee to Avoid Them
But I only realized last month just how much my streaming services were costing me and how the price overall was more than TV had cost me. So I cut a few down. Just left with Netflix and Amazon Prime ad-free.
Maybe it won't be for a few more years but the streaming services are doing the EXACT SAME THING pay-tv did when they owned the industry. These prices increases will backfire in a short while.
Just because the language in the TOS says they can do this doesn't mean it is 100 percent legal. Many TOS contracts have been thrown out in court
I wonder if we will see this come full circle, where the cable companies return and start undercutting the prices of the likes of Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Hulu. Cable-cutters to cloud-cutters to cable-cutters…
Wonder who are this ding dongs who enjoy watching movies with ads that it is showing ratings that people prefer ads? Did this streaming service forget TiVo and DVRs? Because no one wanted to watch ads.
And here are why physical copies will never die. Either way, like Netflix there is not much on Amazon Prime worth watching or like their Amazon Prime music streaming with ads which cannot compete Apple Music or Spotify.
And here are why physical copies will never die. Either way, like Netflix there is not much on Amazon Prime worth watching or like their Amazon Prime music streaming with ads which cannot compete Apple Music or Spotify.
There are still places you can buy DVDs and Blu-Ray discs but sales have been shrinking for years as consumers seem to prefer streaming but how content providers choose to offer their products can mostly be up to them. Technology can shift markets.
There is no rule or guideline that says ads have to be able to support the entire cost of delivering content. As I stated previously, the long running standard had actually been more the opposite i.e., a pay/ad hybrid model for content delivery whether it be television, newspapers or magazines. Even movie theaters run ads. At least with most current premium streaming services, you have a choice between going with ads or without ads.
No, you are not.
You can turn the damned thing off.
You know what we call people who can't walk away from something?
Addicts.
I have no TV because of Ads. I never go to cinema because of Ads. I pay for a newspaper that doesn't have Ads. And most magazines are basically a collection of Ads, so I skip those as well.
But PAYING TO BE FORCED TO WATCH ADS IS purely criminal. Oh sure you can pay twice the old price. And in a year that is 4x the original price. etc.
And yes you can still buy BluRay or DVD for some shows. But that has been around 1-5% of what it used to be. This why I said "almost completely".
Sure, but not if you want to watch the exclusive content. Then you have basically a 100% price increase if you don't want ads. So YES you are FORCED TO WATCH ADS. (Or pirate, which is my main point)
And you know what we call people who just take anything a billion dollar company does?
A simp.
My point is: for free you get the perfect experience. Download anything, watch everywhere without any Ads or DRM.
And I want companies like Amazon, Apple, Warner Bros, Disney, Netflix, etc. to come with a system where I could pay to have something similar legally.
And honestly it's not that hard. You can do this already with Music and eBooks.
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You don’t have to watch the ads in a movie theater. Just go in 15 minutes after the start time (at least my theater is always exactly 15 minutes of trailers). Plus they don’t interrupt the movie with ads in the middle. The day that happens is the day I stop going.
True the ads here are 15 minutes as well. Some cinema's do have breaks here, but those are without Ads.
Also cinema's are in a difficult place. Since they basically don't make any money on tickets. This is why the snacks and drinks are so expensive and also why they show ads. These aren't billion dollar companies.
Subscribers are getting a discount to allow them to run ads. Using Max as an example, ad-free is $15.99/month and with ads is $9.99/month. A subscriber is essentially being paid $6/month (via the discount) to allow Max to run ads. Someone can choose which one they want. There is nothing purely criminal about it and "with ads" is the way (pay/ad hybrid model) content has been delivered for ages. The good thing is that most premium streaming services at least give customers a choice to go ad-free or with ads.
If you pay to subscribe you should never see an ad.
The advantages of Prime keep fading into history.
It was always going to end up this way. Same way we see/hear ads in magazines, newspapers, cable tv, radio stations, etc that we subscribe to.
Another change to Prime I just discovered this morning. For returns, I always plopped the item into a box, print out the label and return it to UPS Store....for free.
That UPS Store option is not free anymore, $1.00 charge and quite a bit more if you need a box w/ label, etc.
Staples Drop Off and Whole Foods is still free however. I used this Whole Foods return kiosk for the first time this morning, pretty easy.
That UPS Store option is not free anymore, $1.00 charge and quite a bit more if you need a box w/ label, etc.
Staples Drop Off and Whole Foods is still free however. I used this Whole Foods return kiosk for the first time this morning, pretty easy.
Amazon Freevee really terrible. The ads grow with length of viewing. Bosch before Freebee and after Freebee terrible experience. I assume that format will be the new Amazon Prime Video with an increase in costs. Not looking forward to this move.
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The beauty of being a consumer is you don’t have to buy it lol.
Amazon prime is only useful for shopping for me. Their content is terrible and almost as bad as Apple TV.
Well, there is always the option of paying for the highest tier in order to not see any ads.
With all these subscription services and massive constant price hikes piracy will be making a strong comeback again and they'll be wondering why. I pay for ones I use like Disney and Amazon only because I use Amazon for shopping but you are far better off torrenting to be honest. The amount of services is getting out of hand, all I want and I bet most others would be one service with one decently priced subscription, not a dozen service each one locked behind a paywall with prices going up and up.
Until they get really greedy and shove ads on that top tier as well.
Until they get really greedy and shove ads on that top tier as well.
I would like to think that however high Amazon decides to hike their prices, there will always be the top tier without ads. It may be fantastically expensive, it may not seem worth it, but the choice will still be there.