“Tolerate,” my ass. I’m paying the three dollars a month for ad-free Prime, because I’m not watching ads during an election year. The damn election is stressful enough as it is.
Prime Video is just barely worth the price, but now that all the Stephen J. Cannell shows have been moved to Shout Factory TV, I’m reconsidering. Between that and all the shows on Freevee (uh, what part of “ad free viewing” don’t you understand?), the only tangible benefit I get from Amazon Prime is free shipping… and that free shipping isn’t as fast as it used to be before the pandemic.
Fitting cover picture
Piracy is going to be as popular as ever.
Great news!
I’ve just stopped watching all prime content. Paramount+ is really pissing me off right now as well.
Thank you amazon for encouraging piracy
I’m not even sure it encourages piracy. That would assume amazon has content people want to watch.
Name an amazon show…
See? You can’t do it. Nobody can! It’s like trying to name lost media from the silent movie generation. Nobody would know what you were talking about if you did name one.
American Gods, Rings of Power, Good Omens, the Expanse, Man in the high castle, the Last of us, etc etc.
It’s not always as good of a selection as other services, but it’s got a fair few gems on there and a good amount of back catalogue films and tv shows that are fab :-)
And the fact that they collect so much stuff that would otherwise not be available at all (usually because its only on some random foreign streaming service and refuses to work with netflix) is where they really shine.
That said, I immediately stopped using it when they brought adverts in to the paid subscription. I’m not paying to watch adverts, sorry, no.
It still boggles my mind how paying for ads became acceptable. Not only is the company making money from the advertisers for the ad space, they now get to make money off the population for viewing the ads. This is a crazy world we live in.
Also The Boys, Invincible, and Wheel of Time.
Oh yeah, forgot about those! I enjoyed the boys and invincible a lot, I never got around to watching wheel of time, I will eventually, but I’ve heard nothing particularly good (or that it’s middling at best) so I’ve shoved it to the back of my to watch list.
I personally hated WoT.
Ones that haven’t been mentioned yet is Clarkson’s Farm and the Grand Tour.
Right, sadly…
The Boys, Fallout, Invincible, Good Omens. These were all good shows, though the Boys is kinda wearing thin and I’m glad it’s ending next season.
Haven’t seen em, but Jack Ryan, Reacher, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Marvelous Ms. Maisel…all these seem to have done extremely well and been popular.
Sure they have their absolute disasters like the Rings of Power too, but it’s not like they’re on the same level of quality as like the freevee’s and roku original shows.
Reacher is so much better than Tom Cruise’s tiny Reacher.
Amazon as a company sucks enough on its own. No need to make shit up.
See? You can’t do it.
I can. I can even name multiple really good shows. But you don’t want to hear them. You want to fabricate a narrative.
I think amazon actually has the most enjoyable stuff to watch for me. Not that I pay for it.
The Boys maybe? (Idk I don’t watch Amazon shows)
Btw if you’re gonna put a question like that in your comment, at least make us answer it before making your point. Makes for better conversations methinks.
Why is it that these fucks get to increase their price and just to offer shittier service but if I want a raise at my job I’ve got to go above and beyond?
I’m not even sure how many streaming services make a profit at this point. They all seem to lower the quality everywhere at the same time.
Raises where you work are still based on merit? Damn!
You guys get raises?
Technically, no. The last few have been significantly below either measure of inflation. So in real terms, I’ve had a wage cut!
Likewise. My promotion was less than the annual inflation.
They aren’t, it’s just an excuse.
Your employer probably made you sign a contract, Amazon just changes their eula/terms&conditions. Amazon aren’t legally bound to keep their prices the same.
Looks like I cancelled at the right time. They seem to forget that we in fact do have a choice at the end of the day. And my choice is to sail the high seas.
Media clowns act like their engagement slop is food or shelter… Guess users haven’t voted with their feet enough on this 100% discretionary expense
I’m subscribed to Prime because I order too much shit and want to save on delivery costs. Those little Amazon lockers are too damn convenient for me.
If I watch their content, it’s via my PC with an ad block. I stop watching their shit the day I can’t block their ads because fuck’em.
I still pirate shows I would have the right to stream 😂😅quality is better and no tracking 🤷🏻
Fwiw, I’ve been prime free now for almost three years. If you batch your orders, you can still get free shipping.
Not only that but if you’re looking at a high priced item the manufacturer will often ship it for free at the same price as amazon.
I cancelled prime when they first introduced ads. But the delivery fees without prime, damn. I think I’d pirate shows if I got prime but I’m pretty sure that just makes them think they should invest in fewer shows. And damned if, pre ads, prime didn’t have a lot of my favourites (boys, invincible, end of the expanse etc.)
What a ramble. I’m just torn.
I just went cold turkey because I can’t/won’t watch content with ads, and already felt the cost of our streaming services was too much for what we get out of it.
What I’ve found myself doing is if I do buy from Amazon and it’s below the free shipping amount, I try and buy from a marketplace seller who ships themselves for free. Often this ends up matching the Prime price, but it’s buried further down the result because it doesn’t have Prime shipping. Or I buy the same product via eBay, which is mostly cheaper. But main thing is, I’ve found I just buy less. Like A LOT less. As a family we’d often get 3 or 4 Amazon deliveries a week. That’s not been replaced with orders from other retailers. It’s almost as if having Prime encourages you to buy stuff you maybe don’t need!
just wait until you have like 40-50$ worth of items, a lot of the time they’ll give you free shipping at a certain price point. Plus some items give you free shipping regardless.
That being said, I still have prime myself cause I order /a lot/ of small orders and it’s shared with the house, plus I use the family member feature to give my mom prime as well and we just split the cost. When they do away with that feature is when I cancel my sub, 140-160 a year is not worth it for one person to pay alone, that’s roughly 2.5 orders a month
Perhaps the ad-free prime video subscription could be a viable option if prime has a lot of your favourite shows and you are opposed to piracy?
Not judging or telling you what to do. Just thinking out loud.
I would just go with piracy if you don’t want to pay the ad free tier.
My gripe is that i was on an ad free tier. They just changed it so that the tier that was previously add free now had ads.
If they had added an ad free tier below my tier i would probably still be a subscriber.
“you watch ads now, pay more or fuck off” didnt sit well with me so i fucked off
Makes sense.
They’ve been increasing the ad load the whole time. The most I’ve seen so far is 5 ads. Streaming will return to broadcast TV convention sooner than people think probably. 15 minutes of ads per hour.
20?
Why stop there?
Stopped watching netflix because they banned sharing accounts and £18 (24 USD) monthly was too much. Cheaper plans didn’t have 4K or 5.1 audio, so it felt like a waste.
Never watched prime because I refuse to pay for something then still see ads.
Now I either source stuff by other means (🏴☠️🦜) and put it on my media server, or I use BBC iPlayer. Not sure if that’s a thing outside of the UK, but zero ads and decent quality programming is something I’m happy to pay their fee for.
It’s fucked how greed has completely ruined the streaming market. Back in ~2010 it felt like the market was going in such a positive direction.
Same thing happened with cable decades ago.
The public TV was full of ads and bad programs. Cable offered you pay them for no ads, good series and new movies. Then the prices rose, then the ads started, then the programs turned to shit as much or even more than before.
Streaming just went the same path.
[When launched] Prime Video with ads was given a “very light ad load,” providing subscribers “gentle entry into advertising that has exceeded customers expectations in terms of what the ad experience would be like." The executive pointed out that Prime Video with ads doesn’t show commercials in the middle of content. That could change next year.
Planned enshittification a la boiling frogs.
The executive pointed out that Prime Video with ads doesn’t show commercials in the middle of Content
That’s a blatant lie, it definitely does.
Copying my reply to someone else:
What did they interrupt the episode for? Because a number of companies have adopted the policy that, if the interruption is promoting something else offered by the platform - say, a different program, or another tier of service - that those interruptions aren’t really ads, because the company isn’t actually getting paid to air it. It absolutely looks and acts like an ad to the viewers, but the companies are trying to redefine the word.
That’s not even true, they interrupted episode 2 of Rings of Power for me.
Light my arse, from the start they’ve interrupted with adverts for their own crap making it barely tolerable. Even on the adfree tier.
Canceled and no intention of ever going back. Measuring your ad load by American standards doesn’t work when your competition is netflix and iPlayer.
The executive pointed out that Prime Video with ads doesn’t show commercials in the middle of content. That could change next year.
So regular TV is designed around the ads.
Cliff hangers before ads are done not only for the story, but to keep you there through the ad to get the outcome to the cliffhanger.
That partially went away with the no ad streaming.
Now that shitty behavior is going to come back.
Now that shitty behavior is going to come back.
Of course not. Streaming sites are far too lazy for that. They’ll just cram the commercial into the middle of the show with no regard for the story. It’s the only way they’ll be able to put ads in the middle of shows not made to have ads.
Ugh, you’re right. Enshittify to the max!
I’ll just pirate their shit. I’ll pirate it so hard and I’ll do it with both middle fingers in the air. But not literally, I would definitely need both hands to pirate their content.
We still need one person with a membership to download and post it all. Maybe we should start a fund to support their ever increasing membership costs…
Pretty sure you can be a decent pirate with a hook for a hand buddy. Don’t let your dreams be dreams!
So are executives born with an asshole where their mouth belongs or do they surgically put it on when you get the gig?
Humans, being deuterostomes, have an embryological stage where we are just anuses.
Some humans never develop past that.
Well, guess it’s time to get an eye patch and a pet parrot
I have already ramped up on that one on their last ad ramp up.
I can’t stand it.
Do you know any sea shanties to go along with that?
What shall we do with an ad filled service? What shall we do with an ad filled service? What shall we do with an ad filled service? Before we go crazy!
Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Before we go crazy!
Cancel our subscription with greatest haste now! Cancel our subscription with greatest haste now! Cancel our subscription with greatest haste now! Before we go crazy!
Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Before we go crazy!
Search for the show on pirate websites! Search for the show on pirate websites! Search for the show on pirate websites! Before we go crazy!
Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Before we go crazy!
Yo ho ho and a terabyte of NAS!
Aye!
Yarr harr fiddle dee dee
Stealing from Bezos is alright with me
Don’t watch their ads cause your time’s not for free
You are a pirate!
Is Alestorm close enough?
And they’ve already ramped it up quite a bit. Been watching a show for couple of months, used to be one ad per episode, which I could handle, now it’s like every 10 minutes. So I’ve already cancelled and found the show using other ways.
Is it weird that I have prime but I pirate still?
It’s not just a good experience…
I do the same. Their video app was shit before the ads.
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Yup, I had it for a bit when we used Prime, but the experience sucked so I naturally just didn’t use it. Then I realized I’m only using shipping and Twitch subs, and that certainly wasn’t worth the cost, so I cancelled.
Screw 'em.
