Ads Coming to Amazon Prime

[BostonBob]

from cp24.com:

Amazon Prime Video will include advertising during shows and movies starting early next year, joining other streaming services that have added different tiers of subscriptions.

Members of Amazon Prime can pay $2.99 per month in the U.S. to keep their service ad-free, the company said Friday.

Streaming services are in a heated tug-of-war over viewers and users are growing more adept at jumping in and out of those services, often depending on price. The platforms risk losing customers with price hikes, but they could lose them if they don't generate new content that wins over users.

Ads in Prime Video content will start in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada in early 2024, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in the year.

Amazon said that it's not making changes to the price of Prime membership next year. It plans to announce pricing for ad-free programming for countries other than the U.S. at a later time.

For U.S. users, Amazon said it will send out an email to Prime members several weeks before ads are introduced into its programs with information on how to sign up for the ad-free option if they choose to do so.


Full story: Amazon Prime Video will soon come with ads, or a monthly charge to dodge them

Click to read more...

 

[Voight]

Between this and some services releasing episodes weekly (instead of all at once binge style), streaming services are slowly transforming into regular TV channels. The inly difference is going to be not as many commercials and you can pick what you wanna watch at any given time.

 

[BostonBob]

I get Amazon Prime Canada as a theme pack as part of my TV package with Telus so they pay my total subscription fee which I think is still $9.99/month plus taxes so here in BC it would be $11.19/month. I wonder if Telus will now also pay this new fee or will it be left to the customer to decide for themselves ????

 

[Jumptheshark]

This will not make me happy if they suddenly change my package

 

[Peasy]

Soon enough we will be able to bundle streaming services together!

 

[Osprey]

They spent over a billion dollars on The Rings of Power and Citadel. They have to recoup it somehow. This is easier than making shows that people want to watch.

 

[BostonBob]

Ads will be starting on January 29th in Canada, USA, Germany and the UK.

from businessinsider.com:

Amazon Prime Video is introducing commercials to its content next month.

The streaming service, which is home to originals like "Reacher" and "The Boys," announced in September that it would begin rolling out ads on Prime in 2024, and subscribers have now received an email announcing that the change would begin on January 29 for US subscribers. Those who wish to avoid ads can pay an extra $2.99 per month.

"This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers," Amazon wrote in its December 26 email to customers.

Prime Video can be accessed through Amazon Prime, which costs $14.99 per month, or on its own for $8.99 per month. The change will affect subscribers in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada first, and will launch in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia at a later date.

The price hike comes as streaming services get more expensive across the board and introduce new revenue streams in efforts to turn a profit. Netflix, Hulu, Max, Disney+, Peacock, and Paramount+ With Showtime have all raised their prices this year.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Well.. if they're consistent with other streaming services.. In the US, it'll be a steady diet of ads for prescription drugs..
and Little Caesars (in Spanish).

 

[beowulf]

Between this and some services releasing episodes weekly (instead of all at once binge style), streaming services are slowly transforming into regular TV channels. The inly difference is going to be not as many commercials and you can pick what you wanna watch at any given time.

Pretty much the path they have been on for a while.

 

[beowulf]

They spent over a billion dollars on The Rings of Power and Citadel. They have to recoup it somehow. This is easier than making shows that people want to watch.

To be somewhat fair that estimate of $1B for Ring of Power includes the $250M to acquire the rights, the about $460M for the first season and the expected $100M to $150M for each the 4 remaining seasons if they still plan on making 5 total.

Not sure what Citadel cost but have not even watched it yet.

Sadly shows are becoming increasingly expensive to make, whether due to mismanagement or other factors I don't know.

While Game of Throne cost HBO about $100M per season (between 2011 and 2019), the first 2 seasons of The Crown supposedly cost Netflix $130M. The 4th season of Stranger Things cost Netflix a reported $40M/episode for 9 episodes. The new HBO dragon show is coming in at $200M per season.
7 episodes of Wanda Vision supposedly cost $200M.

It is pretty insane.

 

[John Price]

makes it harder to watch on tv

at leas tyou can block them all on pc

 

[BostonBob]

Got an e-mail from Amazon Prime Canada about an hour ago - the ads will start in Canada on February 5th:

Dear Prime member,

We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting February 5, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than traditional TV and other streaming TV providers. No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership. We will also offer a new ad-free option for an additional $2.99 per month* that you can sign up for here.

And, you can expect additional features and programs added in the future for our Prime members.

As mentioned above, no action is required from you. If you wish to sign up for the ad-free option, you can click here to sign up. And, as always, if you have questions about your Prime membership, you can manage your account here.

Thank you for being a valued member of Amazon Prime.

Sincerely,
The Amazon Prime team

* Live event content such as sports will continue to include advertising.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

I mean, we all knew this was coming. People cheer for the actors/writers getting raises...well who do you think ends up paying for that? We do.

Prices continue to go up on all streaming platforms, and more and more ads.

 

[RandV]

While advertisers will creep their way into anything and everything if allowed this is really just a price hike with a convenient arrangement to sell it like it isn't.

With new subscriptions drying up and/or decreasing from the competition prices were bound to go up at some point. And I have no idea which direction the streaming services are going but I still feel like there's a gaping chasm to get across to where things were 15 years ago, when you were paying starting at $50 a month for basic cable for a selection of channels that ran on a schedule and almost a third of the run time were commercial breaks.

 

[John Price]

I have several TV's here with streaming services and when I see an ad I just rush for my remote to skip it. Every Max show like Hard Knocks has 30 seconds of pre-show crap (and I have the ad-free package!), at least they give you the option to skip. Some of them like Peacock or Hulu, you can't skip at all. Forgive me for being impatient, but I'm trying to sit down and relax, I don't have time to watch 90 seconds of ads before the TV show. Especially when the ads are interspersed at terrible times (was watching The Office a few days ago on Peacock and they just cut right in the middle of the show to show me a minute of ads, I immediately turned my TV off and started watching on my PC where the ads were blocked)

Now some services like Paramount+ flat out refuse to work without an ad blocker, even if your ad blocker is off it will complain. But for the most part I'm through with watching any streaming on TV which has ads. I actively seek to block or forward though, and if that doesn't work, straight to PC

 

[Baby Punisher]

This is exactly what happened with cable TV. I am that old that I remember a time when cable was advertised as a commercial free-fee service. There is no great savings on these streaming services either. I was surprised to learn recently that I am paying $24.99 for Netflix. When I signed up in 2011, I remember paying $4.99 for streaming and could stream on as many devices as I wanted to.

I already gave up on Disco, and Paramount+. I may dump Amazon next. I'm over it.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Not happy. My subscription was renewed and I paid in full for the year and I just got the email saying for £3 more a month I can go back to commercial free. I checked the T and Cs of my agreement and there is nothing there about them being able to do it

 

[Bounces R Way]

Sometimes I wonder if all the advertising I've been exposed to over my lifetime has fried parts of my brain. But then I buy myself something nice and instantly feel much better.

 

[BB79]

I cut the cable a dozen years ago. It was great back then. Today it sucks. You have more options but everything is oversaturated with advertising.

When cable tv first came out the appeal was that you paid a premium but you had no commercials. Then cable bastards figured out they can make you pay for their service AND put advertisements in, making money on both ends. Streaming has, to no surprise, followed in the same footsteps

 

[Bowski]

Marketing greed will always rot even the (initially seeming) best of things from the inside.

Aside from movies/shows, subscription culture has exploded to make sure money is always dripping in, while future generations won't own a damn thing to their name.

 

[StrangeVision]

This is so f***ing lame, but streaming was always destined to become the new cable.

 

[2CHAINZ]

It's going to be funny when people stop paying and just stream for free with no ads.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

Not happy. My subscription was renewed and I paid in full for the year and I just got the email saying for £3 more a month I can go back to commercial free. I checked the T and Cs of my agreement and there is nothing there about them being able to do it

Aren't you a lawyer also? Hoping you can do something, for us, and for yourself.

 

[RandV]

I cut the cable a dozen years ago. It was great back then. Today it sucks. You have more options but everything is oversaturated with advertising.

When cable tv first came out the appeal was that you paid a premium but you had no commercials. Then cable bastards figured out they can make you pay for their service AND put advertisements in, making money on both ends. Streaming has, to no surprise, followed in the same footsteps

Was anyone here even alive when that happened? I feel like there'd be more people on here that only know life of streaming than commercial-less cable TV.

I'm saying that as I don't know exactly how it happened, but I'm not convinced we're going down the same route here. The main thing is with what we ended up there was a separation between who we paid - the cable provider, and who delivered the show - TV networks. In this setup the cable provider is the middle man, and it was the TV networks who dealt with ad encroachment.

So the difference with streaming is they're both the service provider and the content creator. If advertisers are enticing the streaming service with add revenue, the service can turn to their users with a small price hike to remain add free. This has more or less become the internet model: pay us to not see adds. HFBoards for example, become a sponsor to not see adds! Which highlights another issue for advertisers/streaming providers as this is all data going over the internet users can take measures to block the adds and you're just going to end up in a constant struggle, so for the latter just taking payment directly from the user is probably the better option.

Like I was saying above I think where the question of 'becoming the same as cable TV' really comes down to how much you're paying. If you can make due with one streaming service, alternating as new shows come out, then you're still getting a bargain compared to old cable TV prices. Of course the old cable companies are fine as they're just getting you on internet access/data.

 

[BB79]

Was anyone here even alive when that happened? I feel like there'd be more people on here that only know life of streaming than commercial-less cable TV.

I'm saying that as I don't know exactly how it happened, but I'm not convinced we're going down the same route here. The main thing is with what we ended up there was a separation between who we paid - the cable provider, and who delivered the show - TV networks. In this setup the cable provider is the middle man, and it was the TV networks who dealt with ad encroachment.

So the difference with streaming is they're both the service provider and the content creator. If advertisers are enticing the streaming service with add revenue, the service can turn to their users with a small price hike to remain add free. This has more or less become the internet model: pay us to not see adds. HFBoards for example, become a sponsor to not see adds! Which highlights another issue for advertisers/streaming providers as this is all data going over the internet users can take measures to block the adds and you're just going to end up in a constant struggle, so for the latter just taking payment directly from the user is probably the better option.

Like I was saying above I think where the question of 'becoming the same as cable TV' really comes down to how much you're paying. If you can make due with one streaming service, alternating as new shows come out, then you're still getting a bargain compared to old cable TV prices. Of course the old cable companies are fine as they're just getting you on internet access/data.

I'm not going to get into the history of cable tv but the final straw for me were the rising prices, 800 channels of nothing to watch and finally adding "micro ads" at the bottom of the screen during shows. Usually an annoying little animated thing advertising another one of the network's shows and what time it's on.

Oh we're heading down the same road no doubt. The writing is on the wall. The cable providers have lost enough business that most channels now have streaming channels that you have to subscribe to. The only difference I see is now you get to pick and chose what channels you want. Want ESPN and Disney +? Subscribe. Want AMC too? Separate subscription. Now Prime is putting ads in, on top of having to be a paying Prime member (of which the price just went up recently) you have to deal with ads as well.

Here's a good post about the decreasing run times of shows over the years due to the increase in ads. I sense I'm one of the older ones on this board, I've lived most of what he's talking about-

Average Length of a TV Show w/o Commercials?

Does anybody remember, over the years, what the average length of a given TV program was without commercials attached to it? On my Brady Bunch season...

forums.stevehoffman.tv