There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Earlier this year, Amazon announced plans to start incorporating ads into movies and TV shows streamed from its Prime Video service, and now the company has revealed a specific date when you’ll start seeing them: it’s January 29th.

No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership,” the company wrote.

Customers have the option of paying an additional $2.99 per month to keep avoiding advertisements.

The rest of the email summarizes the many benefits of a Prime subscription — no doubt an attempt to keep customers from cancelling over this decision.

The move comes as competing streaming services continue to raise subscription rates across the board.

The monthly cost of Amazon Prime isn’t changing, but if you want to preserve the same experience you have today starting on January 29th, you’ll end up paying more.

The original article contains 282 words, the summary contains 145 words. Saved 49%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

BobaFuttbucker ,

Capitalism marches onward.

roofuskit , (edited )

Yo ho yo ho.

I don’t understand how people paying for prime can stand that crappy prime video UI anyway.

echo64 ,
  1. it’s basically fine and unoffensive ui to 99.9% of people
  2. people see it as functionally free because they bought prime for free delivery
  3. People don’t know how to pirate
rizoid ,
@rizoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I’m deep into the seven seas but I still use prime because a family member pays for it. Its a decent enough ui and has some live stuff I can throw on to keep kids entertained. However, I’ve already added the shows I watch on prime to my jellyfin server just because this change is going to make me not want to use it anymore.

fluckx ,

Still a better UI than Disney+ too

AbidanYre ,

I didn’t realize just how good the Netflix UI was until using Paramount+

JJROKCZ ,

Netflix’s demand to auto-play a trailer/song on every tile make any tv freeze or crash nearly every time I use the Netflix app on it. It’s gotten to the point I’m about to just cancel netflix because I can’t watch it

AtariDump ,

help.netflix.com/en/node/2102

LazaroFilm ,
@LazaroFilm@lemmy.world avatar

Yep. I don’t consider it as a valuable streaming platform. If they removed it from the general prime I would not buy it separately.

CmdrShepard42 ,

I can’t agree with #1. The interface is that of Amazon’s regular storefront and it often mixes paid media in with the free stuff or has stupid stuff like seasons 2, 4, & 6 being free while 1, 3, & 5 are paid. Maybe it’s different in the TV apps, but the browser version is atrocious.

pineapplelover ,

I can understand 1 and 2, although, for 3, even though, most of my (nontechie) friends don’t know how to pirate, they know how to look up grey streaming sites like 123movies, sflix, fmovies, etc

tacosanonymous ,

I’m a shameless sailor but my wife has it for the free shipping.

Their menus are ass but I really like the actual player ui. Love pausing and seeing who is in the scene.

gregorum ,

I pay for Amazon prime. The only time I watch Prime Video is every once in a while I wonder: is Stargate: Universe as terrible as I remember? And then I try watching it and remember that it is. 

CmdrShepard42 , (edited )

I honestly thought it wasn’t terrible and would have benefitted from fleshing out the rest of the story. It was definitely a huge departure from the styling of SGU and Atlantis but not horrible on its own.

urandom ,

It’s slightly more convenient than sailing, considering it’s attached to my unlimited photo backup

aard ,
@aard@kyu.de avatar

When I still was paying for prime (cancelled it last price increase) I was pirating any prime videos as that was easier than dealing with the shitty prime video UI.

Jackthelad ,

Not to mention the shockingly bad picture quality.

The 4k stuff isn’t terrible, but anything that’s in HD is bloody awful.

kratoz29 ,

The UI had a “recent” glow up, it was way worse before.

ArchAengelus ,

The player interface is excellent. Being able to see who the actors are in each scene is one of my favorite UI features.

I agree that finding a thing you want to watch is meh at best. Especially because they mix in rentals, purchasable content, and prime content all in the home interface window.

That said, yo ho matey.

roofuskit ,

Yes, X-ray is a fantastic feature. I have to give them that. The rest of it is trash.

intensely_human ,

Yeah if you hate immersion it’s great.

JimmyMcGill ,

They also have a ton of subtitles and audio options. Like a shit ton.

Meanwhile Netflix most times doesn’t even have subtitles in one or more of the official languages where I live. And for sure they could have more, considering where they operate, they just choose not to.

However prime UI sucks for splitting shows between seasons so they get recommended multiple times. It just makes no sense

hesdeadjim ,

Poster might be describing how fucking awful Prime arranges shit on a Fire stick. Search taking you to specific episodes rather than to the show. Seasons split up into mini seasons 201, 202, 203, 204. Kids shows are the worst, sometimes the seasons are split into different show listings.

It’s truly impressive how a huge corporation can build the shittiest UI of them all.

Windshear ,

I originally started paying for prime for the free shipping. Prime video is a perk as far as I’m concerned. I haven’t re-evaluated it in a long time though to see if it’s worth it. I do order a ton of stuff on amazon since I live 160km from the nearest city.

foggy ,

Say less.

lemmylommy ,

🏴‍☠️

charonn0 ,
@charonn0@startrek.website avatar

Looks like I’m cancelling.

ripcord ,
@ripcord@kbin.social avatar

Is Prime Video something that people sign up for a d would cancel? I thought it was something they just happened to get when buying the express shipping package.

charonn0 ,
@charonn0@startrek.website avatar

It’s all part of the Prime package. I signed up because they had the new Star Trek shows.

partial_accumen ,

You can buy the video-only version of prime which is cheaper than the full prime.

Pheonixdown ,

Each part of Prime just keeps getting shittier and shittier, this could definitely be a straw that broke the camel’s back situation. Shipping stopped being 2-days every time during the pandemic, returns used to allow for pick up at your house are now drop off at a store. Music catalog is being slowly locked behind Unlimited, and now it’s all station-ified so you can’t even listen to what you want.

Beardedsausag3 ,
@Beardedsausag3@kbin.social avatar

And bring that keg of mead on board with ya, ya dastardly scallywags 🏴‍☠️

guyrocket ,
@guyrocket@kbin.social avatar

The shitshow of video streaming continues!

thisisawayoflife ,

Thankfully, much of Amazons content shows up on Usenet so I can just download the ad-free versions there and then watch it.

originalucifer ,
@originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

its been fun watching all these streaming bullets whiz by me and my giant smokin' NAS. i feel like neo!

but really, who didnt see this coming the day they announced their service?

Naich ,
@Naich@kbin.social avatar

Well, they can fuck right off.

Squizzy ,

I just got too many channels for like 16 bucks from China.

They can fuck right off. That said they have a decent output so I’m not going to cancel them outright.

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@kbin.social avatar

I’ve got all the content for like 0 bucks from some sea fairing scalllywags.

Squizzy ,

Yeah I do that too, but for the most part it is only content not available to stream where I am.

I got the channels for live sport

Tosti ,
@Tosti@feddit.nl avatar

The moment each show got a pre-reel for another Amazon show this was clearly the path they where taking.

Already cancelled a good 6 months ago.

sik0fewl ,

Yeah, Prime Video already has commercials.

hactar42 ,

At least they give you a slip button, unlike Paramount+

nicetriangle ,

Yeah I thought that was a pretty obvious attempt to ease people into it. So this news doesn't come as a shock. If anything I'm surprised it took this long.

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

The only reason I ever had Prime was free shipping, then I realized as soon as I bundled my orders to be over a certain dollar figure I STILL got free shipping, I kicked Prime to the curb.

aniki ,

You can even get a free week of prime for 2 dollars by just not giving-in which you can then immediately cancel and get ovre and over and over and over again.

villainy ,

For me it was the “Amazon Day” shipping that bundles up a week’s worth of separate orders into one shipping day. Convenient sure but now I’m not getting 2-day shipping… so what am I paying for again? I’ll just bundle up the orders and shipping my damn self.

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, if I need something next day, I’ll go buy it today. :)

numberfour002 ,

I cancelled Amazon Prime awhile ago when the customer service took a nose dive and I realized too many of the 3rd party vendors were using Amazon as their defective products outlet.

But I actively and permanently skipped out on an Amazon Prime subscription because they refused to give me a pro-rated refund on the remaining 8-9 months of service after I cancelled. They literally told me that they start with the pro-rated amount, then subtract out the cost of all the “free” movie/show/music rentals as well as all the “free” shipping on orders during the time you’ve had prime, and you only get whatever remains (if anything). Within the first 3 -4 months, I had already accrued enough “free” $5.99 shipping and $3 - $4 rentals that it exceeded the $100 or whatever cost of a prime membership was back in those days, so I got no refund. Bunch of crooks.

No surprise, I’m completely on board with folks kicking Prime to the curb.

maegul ,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

So for those who don’t know, this happened with cable back in the day. No ads was part of the pitch, then they were slowly introduced, the appeal of the product fell, and, at least in my circles, fewer held on to the product over time.

Pepsi ,
@Pepsi@kbin.social avatar

that’s patently untrue.

the first cable stations were OTA (network) stations from major cities being served to rural areas. those had ads.
the first cable-specific channel was TBS which was just a converted Atlanta NBC channel that also had ads.
as basic cable grew, new channels launched with ads.

Premium channels like HBO launched in the 70s without ads but afaik those channels are still ad-free except self-promotion between shows.

maegul ,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

Well, not everyone lives in the US or has the same timeline or window of experience. I should have made the relativism of my statement more clear, though it was touched on briefly.

Pepsi ,
@Pepsi@kbin.social avatar

I don’t think my “window of experience” has any impact on the objective reality that cable had ads from square 1.

maegul ,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

Unless for some countries the cable experience didn’t have ads from square one, then people in those countries have a different reality.

But globally, yes, you’re point is well made and I didn’t know about it (thanks!), and is arguably much more relevant if that timeline and jurisdiction/territory match that of the corporations which currently run the streaming world, which is very much the case by my count.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •