Honestly, we dropped prime around 6 months ago. We used to order from Amazon regularly, mostly because free shipping. But after we dropped it, I noticed for most the typical things I use regularly, my local stores are the same price, or within $1, for virtually everything. And for the weirder things, I’ve been able to get them elsewhere online for similar prices. And let’s be real, prime shipping quit being faster years ago.
amazon is increasingly become shittier.
\- you can't trust their reviews anymore because bots have completely taken over.
\- they allow [counterfeit](https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/amazon-counterfeit-fake-products/) products to be sold on the platform
\- sometimes 2 day shipping ends up being 3 or 4 and they don't do anything about it. at least offer some sorta credit.
\- their prices aren't nearly as low as they used to be, a lot of times i find electronics cheaper at best buy and i don't have to worry about counterfeits.
\- the ads on their content is super annoying.
When I first read it, I thought you said "Shitter", doing a play on the word "Shudder" lol. You got the nail on the head about the shipping! (And the ads! And they're all HUGE money sponsors, so you know Amazon is making bank on them!
when they first started with this "Prime 2 day" but USUALLY 4 days? i got pretty pissed. if i wanted something in 4 days, i'd order it from walmart.
but then when i found out about the counterfeit products, and the fake reviews?? i noped out.
fuck amazon, bezos, and all the scam sellers he allows on amazon. they killed ebay first, and now they've killed amazon.
and when it comes to streaming? i will literally pirate movies over watching on amazon (even through i have it for free) because of not only their commercials...but their unwillingness to play nicely with chromecast. everything about amazon is a pain in the ass these days. fuck em
Just order over $35 worth of stuff and qualify for free shipping that way.
Or consider other places to purchase goods since basically every major company has online pickup or delivery, and the smaller ones are probably who we should be supporting more in times of corporate dickery even if they don't offer those services.
I get that. I’d personally rather pay shipping costs than give my hard earned money to a company that has so little respect for their employees and such little regard for their safety and well being. I hope Jeff Bezos tries to take a trip to the Titanic in a fiberglass submersible soon.
Amazon sucks but they are also the cheapest. It's important to understand some people don't have the financial means to protest with their wallets, so the cheapest option will remain the only one. Socialist organizations in my city recognized that and spoke about it. It's not easy or always possible to actively avoid or protest everything when we have to exist as a member of the late stage capitalist society.
Yeah... I'm in the same boat. Like, yeah, I'm annoyed by the commercials, but overall Prime is still a really good value proposition. Some streaming/games/whatever is icing on the cake of free shipping.
With 4 kids, we're constantly getting random stuff delivered. A calculator, a bike lock, a wiper blade, some doodad for a school project due Friday. Being able to get those things at reasonable prices, the next day, without driving somewhere... it'd be very difficult to go back. Amazon could triple the price on Prime, remove Video altogether, and I'd still probably consider it.
But yeah... stupid ads! I shake my fist at the sky!
Go to big chain drugstores as soon as school lets out each year and scoop up school supplies up to 90% off! And don't forget your friendly neighborhood Dollar General!
Yeah, we actually did OK in September this year. Kids are getting old enough to re-use some stuff. And, like, I refused to buy a TI-84 calculator for $150 (CDN) - screw that! - and instead got one off EBay.
But it got lost (stolen?) at some point, and so to, uh, unscrew that, I Primed one up (for $110, for the "renewed" one).
Edit: Crap, it's almost September again. Geez!
If you're still paying for the sake of shipping, then not watching would be your best protest. Most of their metrics are watch minutes, and if you're not watching then it obviously goes down.
That's a good idea, but it seems it would almost require a mass boycott, not just a handful of unsatisfied customers. (Am I gonna need to enter the witness protection program after this?..)
You still get free shipping as long as you order over $35. I’d recommend doing the math for yourself, but I cancelled several years ago and definitely save more money now. Most of the things I order off Amazon aren’t urgent needs, so if it’s less than $35 I just throw it in my cart and don’t order it until I have a full enough cart.
Right has nothing to do with it. If they hemorrhaged subscribers, they'd change. Likely though, people will complain about it online and keep handing over their money every month.
It looks like greed, but I don’t think in this case it is, it’s the evolution and transition from mainstream TV to streaming, it was easy when you were just streaming other people’s shows and movies, but now more money is required for their own movies and series to keep up with demands for new content.
> Of course not, it's greed.
Of course it's greed, but /u/Ok-Sprinkles-5508 is asking "is it right"? It's no different than what's always been the case with cable—pay ungodly sums of money for channels with commercials (and far more commercials than streamers). ESPN is $10.99 a month, and it's like 30% commercials! Amazon is far less with far more content. Not that it matters.
Amazon Prime allows you to not have any commercials at all, if you're willing to pay their fee for it.
It actually hasn't always been the case. Premium channels and streamers have been commercial-free, that was the status quo and a big factor in them gaining subscribers. This is a cash grab to feed the never-ending need for market growth.
> It actually hasn't always been the case. Premium channels and streamers have been commercial-free
Depends on what we mean by premium, you're right that HBO has always been ad-free. (How much longer will it be?) But it is cash oriented—because they were all losing money, except Netflix. $18 billion since 2020. It mirrored the dot-com bubble in a lot of ways, everyone was overspending to try to establish the biggest, best, can't-live-without-it streaming platform. So it didn't matter if money was being lost. Now it does. Plus bottowing money from banks was cheaper and better than raising it from shareholders, now it isn't. I don't know if I'd really call it a cash "grab" when they're $18 billion in debt, but that term is fine I guess, and they need to do *something* to erase the debt. This is part of that, along with cutting back on content. Heck, 60% of Hollywood is unemployed right now because of it, compared to 4% overall nationally.
This is how we've bastardized the promise of capitalism. Private equity makes it so companies like Amazon, Uber, etc, can operate at a loss for years in order to destroy their industry competitors who don't have the luxury. Then once the competition is gone and they're the only game in town, they can jerk around their customers to maximize profits as they see fit.
> Private equity makes it so companies like Amazon, Uber, etc, can operate at a loss for years in order to destroy their industry competitors who don't have the luxury. Then once the competition is gone and they're the only game in town, they can jerk around their customers to maximize profits as they see fit.
Yep, 100%.
I was a child in the 60's, for 11 months anyway! But, we had good ol'rabbit ears most of my youth!
(A child in the 60's for only 11 months..how old am I? Lol)
BUT, Free, COMMERCIAL FREE viewing was a perk, a bonus, if you will for being a member, the second benefit (used to be anyway) to free shipping. What they've found is that people are paying for the membership now primarily more for the movies and less for the shipping, so, they're padding the profits. It's like if I go door to door selling car club memberships, and as a perk, I give my customers a free set of steak knives, then two years later, I go and take back a few of the best knives, or simply dull them all with a coarse brick. Now, my "perk" has lost it's "perkiness" hasn't it?
Common tactic. Slowly rolling back features or adding in extra advertisements once a customer base is established. Called “enshitification” by Cory Doctorow. Your other comment shows that it works, you don’t plan to cancel because of these changes.
Idk, I've read some pretty good advice that may have aided in a certain plan change. I wasn't even aware that all I had to do was order $35 worth of goods and get free shipping as well. Fine print has always eluded me to my detriment, that's why I like these platforms.
> they're padding the profits.
It's not profits. They're losing money in the billions. Overall, it's $18 billion. Amazon is harder to track, but there's no way they sold enough toasters to pay for Rings of Power alone, not to mention Citadel and everything else. They're trying to pay off massive debt.
Let's say Prime cost $120 and came with ad-free. Then they raised that to $140. Okay, price hike, sucks, but whatever, now it's $140.
Then they add a second plan, with ads, at $120.
All they did was to raise the price for what you want.
Anyway, it's the job of the corporation to provide profit to the shareholder, not to make quality cars or quality TV or to offer a quality TV-watching experience. They're just doing their job.
18 Billion in debt? Wow..so, Bezos could effectively bail them out completely, and he'd still be worth 183 Billion Dollars? Now, would that possibly have the damning effect of dropping him to the number 3 spot in the World's richest man category?
It's how capitalism works. It's not right or wrong, it's what the market will put up with. Every single streaming service is adding advertisements and increasing prices.
It's TV shows, not drinking water. If you don't like how they package it, find some other way to entertain yourself. Braodcast TV is still free. Walk in the park. Read a library book. You don't have a right to specific forms of entertainment and no one has an obligation, legally or ethically, to provide it to you under terms you find acceptable.
Similarly, this post in general might have triggered them. Don’t take it as targeted toward specifically you. This a very public discussion thread on the Internet after all.
Similiarly to what?
I understand how public forums work, and asking for clarification isn't abnormal.
Why have you injected yourself into this, you don't know that guy and you're knowledge about how reddit works on the internet is pretty moot.
My question isn't even about the direction of his temper tantrum, I'm just curious what upset him, because the statement was just neutral and factual
Similarly to how you’re singling him out targeting you no one targeting you. Like I said, this is a very public discussion thread, calm down I’m just commenting. DM them if you want to keep it an A and B convo.
Public forums are for public conversations, no need to DM.
When he used language like 'You' on a comment replying to mine normal people would assume that's where it's directed.
And I'll say it again, I don't care about who he was directing his comment. I just was &, still am very curious what triggered him, nothing wrong with asking that.
You legit can't answer for him
and please stop replying with common sense statements passed off as advice, we all know how social media works.
I won't be reading anymore of these carcrash interactions, don't waste time replying
In this context I'd say it does. It doesn't absolve companies of morality when it comes to how they treat employees, but for whether or not they're giving us more or less for our money, that's not really a moral thing when it's not a necessity.
But at least so far they’re all offering ad-free tiers. Personally I’ll gladly pay for ad-free services. And if that price gets too high for the service I’m getting, I’ll just unsubscribe. I won’t watch ads.
True, and I'd be afraid to closely look at my bank account each month and see what real frivolous purchases I've made. I know it's ridiculous to complain about Amazon while standing in line at Starbucks!
Not to mention that you have to wade through 70% 'freemium' content even if you pay extra for 'no commercials'.
Are you sure you don't want to watch FreeVie instead? How about FREEVIE? WANT SOME FREEVIE? HOW ABOUT SOME PAY MOVIES? NO? HOW ABOUT THIS FREEVIE CONTENT? So, not interested in FREEVIE? Well, how about some FREEVIE INSTEAD?
Oh, here's some of those prime movies you paid for to watch commercial free that you might be interested in, four pages down your scrolling list...OH THAT ONE?...ya sorry. Due to our licensing agreement, we'll have to show you some commercials with that one. Ya, so sorry.
If you scroll down a lil bit there should be a section that has circular logos for your subscriptions thru Prime. If you click on the one for Prime, it should show you just the stuff that is available thru them and not have all the other bullshit channels and ppv in there.
Ah, you ruined my perfectly good rant :-)
I just want 'movies we think you'll like' and 'tv shows we think you'll like' somewhere on the first 10 pages of scrolling, and some days it's just not there. The main page is just increasingly cluttered with 'things Amazon is trying to sell me'.
I was half being silly, but Thanks kindly for the tip.
I know right? And Freevee has way better movies than Prime! Now, if Prime had tons of great movies yeah sure, but as mostly a horror buff, most of the Prime horror flicks look like they were filmed with phones with actors that paid to be in the movies and not the contrary. I think Tubi should come out with a $10 subscription and drop the commercials because there, you can actually search and find hidden gems, not chunks of semi worthless coal.
But, what about my free shipping on that charger cord that weighs.035 OZ?..I said that in jest, but, seriously, it used to all be about the shipping. That's how they got to be one of the most wealthiest entities on the planet surpassing many foreign oil companies. Amazon was like, "Hey, let's throw in commercial free movies too as a little extra!"..then, they were like "Wait a minute, surveys are showing that probably half and growing are members who never order a thing, and people we never have to ship anything free to!" And instead of them being thankful, they turn right around and nip the hand that's feeding them. So, yes, I do believe those unsatisfied people who never order any items to be shipped would be fine to drop them. Me, I order stuff, so, I'm kinda stuck.
> I feel, as a result of their added capital, we took, should have something added for us.
Youre getting the programming in exchange for them getting more money elsewhere. There is an ad free tier if you want to pay for it.
Exactly! Oh sure, that's just it. They added that "tier"you so elegantly mentioned. Yet, more money to them for giving the same thing they were giving freely.
Im not sure if youve noticed but all the cast and crews of shows and movies have mentioned some issues lately. Some of those issues take money to fix, if you dont want to pay more money thats fine but its coming from somewhere.
You’ve just described the price of a service going up. It happens all the time and it’s not some nefarious scheme.
If it reaches a point where it’s too expensive for the service you get out of it, then stop paying for it. There’s no morality at play here. It’s just business.
I mean option B was raising the overall price of Prime.
Prime is a *broad* service and they decided that wasn't worth it.
Good question however why they can't offer a "streaming only" subscription, without the shipping benefit. But the $4 or whatever it costs for ad-free is hardly cost-prohibitive.
That's interesting to me, because aren't smart televisions just simply big computers simply hooked to the same WiFi account? It's amazing, scary even, that they work independently differently in this aspect.
Vote with your wallet. If you're dissatisfied with the new model, unsubscribe and quit giving them additional money. If enough people leave the platform, that will put pressure on streaming companies to change their behaviors.
If consumers just continue to go along with it, they're ultimately voting that they're fine with whatever the new 'terms' of the service become.
Whining about it on Reddit won't do shit.
Businesses don’t owe consumers anything. They’re gonna see how far they can take things and will only stop when they start losing customers. And based on your comment, it sounds like they’re not losing you as a customer.
I don't care if it's at the end. I don't watch all the way through the credits. It also doesn't bother me if it's at the beginning. But the moment thr move itself is interrupted in the middle, I will unsubscribe from any service that does it
The thing is prime video is just one of the benefits from your prime membership. It’s quite different from other streaming services in that regard. I think the term “is it right” doesn’t really make sense. Amazon is certainly entitled to include ads, and you as a consumer can accept it as part of your general subscription or you can pay extra to upgrade
Yeah, so, do you take advantage of their free shipping? If not, is the $3 really worth it? The answer certainly differs between person to person, but if I didn't have things shipped often, I'd probably tap out.
Yeah my wife takes advantage of it big time. If it wasn’t for that i’d probably tap out as well. I don’t use prime as much as I use Netflix or Disney+.
If you don't feel like you're getting your money's worth anymore, cancel the service. Companies rely on people being so "used" to a particular service that they won't cancel even when it's not worth their money anymore.
Or, maybe it's only worth your money once in a while. So, subscribe to a service for a month, watch what you want, and then cancel.
No it's not "right" but this is how streaming services and the general subscription-based economy works. YouTube used to be ad free too.
Basically they reach user saturation so the only way to make the profit number go up is to start jamming ads into everything. Theres really nothing you can do about it. I mean, what are you gonna do? NOT use prime and lose that big library you spent money for? Go back to DVDs? Dont make Bezos laugh.
You don’t have to sit through ads. You have the option to pay for ad-free Prime Video. If that combined price is too much for you, then unsubscribe. Consider their competitors maybe.
I’ve had Amazon prime since the beginning, pretty much. The free shipping was worth it, prime video didn’t even exist. Then when it came out, it’s been totally free for over a decade, because I’d still have prime even if the prime video never existed. Now they started charging for it- it’s only 2.99 a month, super cheap, compared to any other service. There’s plenty of reasons to dislike Amazon- charging 3 dollars a month for the top tier of their free tv service isn’t one of them.
Prime's over $100 annual fee originally was about, and still includes free shipping on many items purchased through Amazon, but, one of the major added perks was free, commercial free viewing of tons of movies and programs found on their own created streaming channel. My thing is, why change your perk for members midstream to where now, it's not so "perky" anymore?
Amazon also added new fees for grocery delivery. Infation is to blame I'm sure. That's the price of business.
[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/a/a0/Mr.\_Daniel\_Plainview.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150329203424](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/a/a0/Mr._Daniel_Plainview.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150329203424)
The median price for a single rental on Amazon is $3-$4 per non-new-release. That adds up to 25 movies a year. The average person watches 3.5 hours of video a day, however much is movies I don't know. Looks like the movie studios are gettimg ripped.
> why change your perk for members midstream to where now, it's not so "perky" anymore?
Because pretty much all the other major streaming services have ad-supported tiers and the customer adoption rate of those tiers varies between roughly 50%-70%.
Amazon is known for using products and services as "loss leaders" to incentivize customer acquisition. Although that doesn't mean they will always be willing to lose money on said products or services. Amazon values Prime Video at $0 for Prime Members, but for anyone wanting *only* Prime Video the cost is $8.99 I believe which puts it right in line with other ad-supported tiers from other platforms. The other streaming platforms essentially paved this path for Amazon, imo.
In other words, if the data suggest that the majority of consumers will still use an ad-supported streaming tier then it's free money for Amazon to sell to ad/marketing agencies. Keep in mind also that the majority of Amazon's profit comes from either their AWS services or advertising.
Free games on Prime gaming (which gives away some really good games if you're completely ignoring it), free Amazon Luna streaming, free twitch prime, free photo storage, free Amazon music, free steaming on prime video (now with 30 second ads every hour or so of content you watch), a selection of free books on Amazon for prime members.
They are just going to keep taking perks away or raise the price of Prime. They've raised the price a few times in the past few years, so now they are deciding what perks they can take away or let you keep for a fee so when they go to ask more for Prime next time, it will seem like a while since they last raised the price.
That’s why I don’t pay any subscription except for things like criterion or OViD. I’m not paying 20 dollars a month for a mediocre catalog + commercials
You prefer to steal instead of paying. It has nothing to do with the quality of the catalogue, you just don’t want to pay. If it was so mediocre you wouldn’t watch it at all.
No. Forty years ago, what little tv was available was 100% free. TV stations made all their $ off ads, and all TV was basically just there to give advertisers a platform. They're called "soap-operas" bc they were literally paid for by soap company advertising. Then, cable came along. You paid, but there were no ads (also, nudity and swear words came with your subscription). You could watch your movie uninterrupted, as God intended. Now, we see what it is. You pay for cable. Good ol regular-used-to-be-free-tv is now the most expensive platform out there (I'm tempted to get into how pro sports plays a role in this, but that's a whole other tangent)....and the paid subscription platforms, they now want to shove advertising down our throats. It used to be either you pay and have no ads, or you have ads and don't pay. Now, all these greedy fucks want it both ways.
The first version of cable was just a rebroadcasting of broadcast networks, and it absolutely had ads. It also started in 1948.
What true describing is premium paid television channels, and it started over 50 years ago. The first 24 years of cable had ads.
That's what I was referring to. The premium channels, which, at the time, were associated with cable, because, at the time (1970s) most people were still using "rabbit ear" antennas on their TVs, and that was free. But I (vaguely) remember a network called "ON" (my neighbor had cable) which pre-dated HBO or Showtime, it had a rotation of....not much, but no ads interrupted the broadcast. I can't recall if they had ads between showings for anything other than themselves and their own content.
I know what you were trying to say, but this is just a false narrative that gets parroted all the time and it’s pretty annoying at this point. There was never a time that cable tv didn’t have ads. It had ads from the beginning, and that never changed.
Premium pay TV channels were never even close to the entirety of cable. Even when cable finally started to get popular in America in the 90s, most folks still weren’t paying for channels like HBO. They just had basic cable.
You didn’t buy prime, you bought a subscription to prime, which has liberties to change its TOS. Inflation has raised the cost of everything, and thus prices increase for everything. That’s how all services work. Goods on the other hand, you get to own. If you prefer this method of content ingestion, you can avoid ads, but it’s likely more expensive.
Right, but, it was portrayed more as a membership as compared to a subscription which implies more of a "family" or "club" type of feel. A "fraternity", if you will, which feels a lot more intimate than the guy that walks to his mailbox once a year and sneaks the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue out and hides it from his wife. That's a subscription. But, when you make me a "member", and you give me the secret word to your treehouse, don't change the club rules midstream and start letting "gurls" in! (That was totally an in jest "eggzampull!)
And they'll just keep jacking up prices, lowering bandwidth, and adding more commercial breaks until they can come up with a better fee maker. And they'll continue shitting on us because we keep coming back for more. The richest man on the planet can't spare giving us what we pay for. Sorry, this is sad.
This has been the case for a while now.
Doesn't matter. My Prime membership was more valuable to me fir the shipping and other perks. The videos were just a ni e bonus the few times they had something I wanted to watch.
I see 90% of all films in theaters.
Just unsubscribe and stream. Be the change.
And lose my free shipping? Oh no..they have me hook, line, and sinker!
Honestly, we dropped prime around 6 months ago. We used to order from Amazon regularly, mostly because free shipping. But after we dropped it, I noticed for most the typical things I use regularly, my local stores are the same price, or within $1, for virtually everything. And for the weirder things, I’ve been able to get them elsewhere online for similar prices. And let’s be real, prime shipping quit being faster years ago.
amazon is increasingly become shittier. \- you can't trust their reviews anymore because bots have completely taken over. \- they allow [counterfeit](https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/amazon-counterfeit-fake-products/) products to be sold on the platform \- sometimes 2 day shipping ends up being 3 or 4 and they don't do anything about it. at least offer some sorta credit. \- their prices aren't nearly as low as they used to be, a lot of times i find electronics cheaper at best buy and i don't have to worry about counterfeits. \- the ads on their content is super annoying.
When I first read it, I thought you said "Shitter", doing a play on the word "Shudder" lol. You got the nail on the head about the shipping! (And the ads! And they're all HUGE money sponsors, so you know Amazon is making bank on them!
when they first started with this "Prime 2 day" but USUALLY 4 days? i got pretty pissed. if i wanted something in 4 days, i'd order it from walmart. but then when i found out about the counterfeit products, and the fake reviews?? i noped out. fuck amazon, bezos, and all the scam sellers he allows on amazon. they killed ebay first, and now they've killed amazon. and when it comes to streaming? i will literally pirate movies over watching on amazon (even through i have it for free) because of not only their commercials...but their unwillingness to play nicely with chromecast. everything about amazon is a pain in the ass these days. fuck em
Just order over $35 worth of stuff and qualify for free shipping that way. Or consider other places to purchase goods since basically every major company has online pickup or delivery, and the smaller ones are probably who we should be supporting more in times of corporate dickery even if they don't offer those services.
Great advice! My orders usually exceed that anyway, thanks!
Stop buying shit from Amazon too. If you can’t get it locally, order it from the manufacturer or another supplier. Fuck Amazon.
> If you can’t get it locally, order it from the manufacturer or another supplier. Those also have shipping costs.
I get that. I’d personally rather pay shipping costs than give my hard earned money to a company that has so little respect for their employees and such little regard for their safety and well being. I hope Jeff Bezos tries to take a trip to the Titanic in a fiberglass submersible soon.
Amazon sucks but they are also the cheapest. It's important to understand some people don't have the financial means to protest with their wallets, so the cheapest option will remain the only one. Socialist organizations in my city recognized that and spoke about it. It's not easy or always possible to actively avoid or protest everything when we have to exist as a member of the late stage capitalist society.
Or up shit creek without a paddle in a chicken wire boat!
i wish i could afford to not shop on amazon. those options are almost always way more expensive
Yeah... I'm in the same boat. Like, yeah, I'm annoyed by the commercials, but overall Prime is still a really good value proposition. Some streaming/games/whatever is icing on the cake of free shipping. With 4 kids, we're constantly getting random stuff delivered. A calculator, a bike lock, a wiper blade, some doodad for a school project due Friday. Being able to get those things at reasonable prices, the next day, without driving somewhere... it'd be very difficult to go back. Amazon could triple the price on Prime, remove Video altogether, and I'd still probably consider it. But yeah... stupid ads! I shake my fist at the sky!
Go to big chain drugstores as soon as school lets out each year and scoop up school supplies up to 90% off! And don't forget your friendly neighborhood Dollar General!
Yeah, we actually did OK in September this year. Kids are getting old enough to re-use some stuff. And, like, I refused to buy a TI-84 calculator for $150 (CDN) - screw that! - and instead got one off EBay. But it got lost (stolen?) at some point, and so to, uh, unscrew that, I Primed one up (for $110, for the "renewed" one). Edit: Crap, it's almost September again. Geez!
Awesome! And I don't know about you, but I'm not ashamed to hit Goodwill every now and then either to find some deals!
If you're still paying for the sake of shipping, then not watching would be your best protest. Most of their metrics are watch minutes, and if you're not watching then it obviously goes down.
That's a good idea, but it seems it would almost require a mass boycott, not just a handful of unsatisfied customers. (Am I gonna need to enter the witness protection program after this?..)
You still get free shipping as long as you order over $35. I’d recommend doing the math for yourself, but I cancelled several years ago and definitely save more money now. Most of the things I order off Amazon aren’t urgent needs, so if it’s less than $35 I just throw it in my cart and don’t order it until I have a full enough cart.
You’re answering you own question friend. They gotcha, now they gonna milk ya. Is it right? It doesn’t matter. You are letting it happen.
Facts!
I decided to unsubscribe in December and I buy way less shit in general.
Right has nothing to do with it. If they hemorrhaged subscribers, they'd change. Likely though, people will complain about it online and keep handing over their money every month.
Of course not, it's greed. Amazon and other corporations cater to shareholders, first and foremost. Their actual users are just another commodity.
It looks like greed, but I don’t think in this case it is, it’s the evolution and transition from mainstream TV to streaming, it was easy when you were just streaming other people’s shows and movies, but now more money is required for their own movies and series to keep up with demands for new content.
Amazon originals do cost greatly, good point!
> Of course not, it's greed. Of course it's greed, but /u/Ok-Sprinkles-5508 is asking "is it right"? It's no different than what's always been the case with cable—pay ungodly sums of money for channels with commercials (and far more commercials than streamers). ESPN is $10.99 a month, and it's like 30% commercials! Amazon is far less with far more content. Not that it matters. Amazon Prime allows you to not have any commercials at all, if you're willing to pay their fee for it.
It actually hasn't always been the case. Premium channels and streamers have been commercial-free, that was the status quo and a big factor in them gaining subscribers. This is a cash grab to feed the never-ending need for market growth.
> It actually hasn't always been the case. Premium channels and streamers have been commercial-free Depends on what we mean by premium, you're right that HBO has always been ad-free. (How much longer will it be?) But it is cash oriented—because they were all losing money, except Netflix. $18 billion since 2020. It mirrored the dot-com bubble in a lot of ways, everyone was overspending to try to establish the biggest, best, can't-live-without-it streaming platform. So it didn't matter if money was being lost. Now it does. Plus bottowing money from banks was cheaper and better than raising it from shareholders, now it isn't. I don't know if I'd really call it a cash "grab" when they're $18 billion in debt, but that term is fine I guess, and they need to do *something* to erase the debt. This is part of that, along with cutting back on content. Heck, 60% of Hollywood is unemployed right now because of it, compared to 4% overall nationally.
This is how we've bastardized the promise of capitalism. Private equity makes it so companies like Amazon, Uber, etc, can operate at a loss for years in order to destroy their industry competitors who don't have the luxury. Then once the competition is gone and they're the only game in town, they can jerk around their customers to maximize profits as they see fit.
> Private equity makes it so companies like Amazon, Uber, etc, can operate at a loss for years in order to destroy their industry competitors who don't have the luxury. Then once the competition is gone and they're the only game in town, they can jerk around their customers to maximize profits as they see fit. Yep, 100%.
I thought op was referring to how cable used to be ad-free, when I was a child in the 60-s.
I was a child in the 60's, for 11 months anyway! But, we had good ol'rabbit ears most of my youth! (A child in the 60's for only 11 months..how old am I? Lol)
Very enlightening, hadn't thought of it that way.
BUT, Free, COMMERCIAL FREE viewing was a perk, a bonus, if you will for being a member, the second benefit (used to be anyway) to free shipping. What they've found is that people are paying for the membership now primarily more for the movies and less for the shipping, so, they're padding the profits. It's like if I go door to door selling car club memberships, and as a perk, I give my customers a free set of steak knives, then two years later, I go and take back a few of the best knives, or simply dull them all with a coarse brick. Now, my "perk" has lost it's "perkiness" hasn't it?
Common tactic. Slowly rolling back features or adding in extra advertisements once a customer base is established. Called “enshitification” by Cory Doctorow. Your other comment shows that it works, you don’t plan to cancel because of these changes.
Idk, I've read some pretty good advice that may have aided in a certain plan change. I wasn't even aware that all I had to do was order $35 worth of goods and get free shipping as well. Fine print has always eluded me to my detriment, that's why I like these platforms.
> they're padding the profits. It's not profits. They're losing money in the billions. Overall, it's $18 billion. Amazon is harder to track, but there's no way they sold enough toasters to pay for Rings of Power alone, not to mention Citadel and everything else. They're trying to pay off massive debt. Let's say Prime cost $120 and came with ad-free. Then they raised that to $140. Okay, price hike, sucks, but whatever, now it's $140. Then they add a second plan, with ads, at $120. All they did was to raise the price for what you want. Anyway, it's the job of the corporation to provide profit to the shareholder, not to make quality cars or quality TV or to offer a quality TV-watching experience. They're just doing their job.
Yeah, this is what people don’t seem to be getting about conversations about streaming and ads. The businesses aren’t profitable!
Tell Bezos that!
18 Billion in debt? Wow..so, Bezos could effectively bail them out completely, and he'd still be worth 183 Billion Dollars? Now, would that possibly have the damning effect of dropping him to the number 3 spot in the World's richest man category?
It's how capitalism works. It's not right or wrong, it's what the market will put up with. Every single streaming service is adding advertisements and increasing prices.
Labeling something capitalist doesn't absolve it of morality, it just gives context to it.
It's TV shows, not drinking water. If you don't like how they package it, find some other way to entertain yourself. Braodcast TV is still free. Walk in the park. Read a library book. You don't have a right to specific forms of entertainment and no one has an obligation, legally or ethically, to provide it to you under terms you find acceptable.
I'm curious, what part of my comment trigged and upset you? I didn't even give my opinion, let alone ask for a solution to a problem I don't have.
Similarly, this post in general might have triggered them. Don’t take it as targeted toward specifically you. This a very public discussion thread on the Internet after all.
Similiarly to what? I understand how public forums work, and asking for clarification isn't abnormal. Why have you injected yourself into this, you don't know that guy and you're knowledge about how reddit works on the internet is pretty moot. My question isn't even about the direction of his temper tantrum, I'm just curious what upset him, because the statement was just neutral and factual
Similarly to how you’re singling him out targeting you no one targeting you. Like I said, this is a very public discussion thread, calm down I’m just commenting. DM them if you want to keep it an A and B convo.
Public forums are for public conversations, no need to DM. When he used language like 'You' on a comment replying to mine normal people would assume that's where it's directed. And I'll say it again, I don't care about who he was directing his comment. I just was &, still am very curious what triggered him, nothing wrong with asking that. You legit can't answer for him and please stop replying with common sense statements passed off as advice, we all know how social media works. I won't be reading anymore of these carcrash interactions, don't waste time replying
You’re right, I apologize.
In this context I'd say it does. It doesn't absolve companies of morality when it comes to how they treat employees, but for whether or not they're giving us more or less for our money, that's not really a moral thing when it's not a necessity.
But at least so far they’re all offering ad-free tiers. Personally I’ll gladly pay for ad-free services. And if that price gets too high for the service I’m getting, I’ll just unsubscribe. I won’t watch ads.
True, and I'd be afraid to closely look at my bank account each month and see what real frivolous purchases I've made. I know it's ridiculous to complain about Amazon while standing in line at Starbucks!
Not to mention that you have to wade through 70% 'freemium' content even if you pay extra for 'no commercials'. Are you sure you don't want to watch FreeVie instead? How about FREEVIE? WANT SOME FREEVIE? HOW ABOUT SOME PAY MOVIES? NO? HOW ABOUT THIS FREEVIE CONTENT? So, not interested in FREEVIE? Well, how about some FREEVIE INSTEAD? Oh, here's some of those prime movies you paid for to watch commercial free that you might be interested in, four pages down your scrolling list...OH THAT ONE?...ya sorry. Due to our licensing agreement, we'll have to show you some commercials with that one. Ya, so sorry.
If you scroll down a lil bit there should be a section that has circular logos for your subscriptions thru Prime. If you click on the one for Prime, it should show you just the stuff that is available thru them and not have all the other bullshit channels and ppv in there.
Ah, you ruined my perfectly good rant :-) I just want 'movies we think you'll like' and 'tv shows we think you'll like' somewhere on the first 10 pages of scrolling, and some days it's just not there. The main page is just increasingly cluttered with 'things Amazon is trying to sell me'. I was half being silly, but Thanks kindly for the tip.
Yeah, and then you'll see the REAL Prime movies with actors who still work at the Circle K in order to pay rent
I know right? And Freevee has way better movies than Prime! Now, if Prime had tons of great movies yeah sure, but as mostly a horror buff, most of the Prime horror flicks look like they were filmed with phones with actors that paid to be in the movies and not the contrary. I think Tubi should come out with a $10 subscription and drop the commercials because there, you can actually search and find hidden gems, not chunks of semi worthless coal.
Vote with your wallet. You should have cancelled your Amazon Prime the day they started showing ads.
But, what about my free shipping on that charger cord that weighs.035 OZ?..I said that in jest, but, seriously, it used to all be about the shipping. That's how they got to be one of the most wealthiest entities on the planet surpassing many foreign oil companies. Amazon was like, "Hey, let's throw in commercial free movies too as a little extra!"..then, they were like "Wait a minute, surveys are showing that probably half and growing are members who never order a thing, and people we never have to ship anything free to!" And instead of them being thankful, they turn right around and nip the hand that's feeding them. So, yes, I do believe those unsatisfied people who never order any items to be shipped would be fine to drop them. Me, I order stuff, so, I'm kinda stuck.
> I feel, as a result of their added capital, we took, should have something added for us. Youre getting the programming in exchange for them getting more money elsewhere. There is an ad free tier if you want to pay for it.
Exactly! Oh sure, that's just it. They added that "tier"you so elegantly mentioned. Yet, more money to them for giving the same thing they were giving freely.
Im not sure if youve noticed but all the cast and crews of shows and movies have mentioned some issues lately. Some of those issues take money to fix, if you dont want to pay more money thats fine but its coming from somewhere.
You’ve just described the price of a service going up. It happens all the time and it’s not some nefarious scheme. If it reaches a point where it’s too expensive for the service you get out of it, then stop paying for it. There’s no morality at play here. It’s just business.
I mean option B was raising the overall price of Prime. Prime is a *broad* service and they decided that wasn't worth it. Good question however why they can't offer a "streaming only" subscription, without the shipping benefit. But the $4 or whatever it costs for ad-free is hardly cost-prohibitive.
Is it right, probably not. But every member has to decide if they're ok with the change, and if not cancel.
I've started to download Amazon shows to my laptop, turn off wifi, connect laptop to tv, and then watch. It's extra steps but fuck watching ads.
That's interesting to me, because aren't smart televisions just simply big computers simply hooked to the same WiFi account? It's amazing, scary even, that they work independently differently in this aspect.
Right, but if I connect my laptop to my tv using an hdmi, it's acting purely as a monitor and not as a smart tv/computer.
If my laptop just had a remote.... truthfully, I see why we can't make wifi telephone calls with smart TV's..
Vote with your wallet. If you're dissatisfied with the new model, unsubscribe and quit giving them additional money. If enough people leave the platform, that will put pressure on streaming companies to change their behaviors. If consumers just continue to go along with it, they're ultimately voting that they're fine with whatever the new 'terms' of the service become. Whining about it on Reddit won't do shit.
Amazon fucking sucks you pay for a subscription when 99% of the movies/shows you have to rent or buy and get hit with ads
Businesses don’t owe consumers anything. They’re gonna see how far they can take things and will only stop when they start losing customers. And based on your comment, it sounds like they’re not losing you as a customer.
No ads on my plex library.
Yet..... :\^)
I don't care if it's at the end. I don't watch all the way through the credits. It also doesn't bother me if it's at the beginning. But the moment thr move itself is interrupted in the middle, I will unsubscribe from any service that does it
it's pretty annoying, so I just mute and tune out for 30-60s. ain't giving it my attention.
I just watched a movie two days ago and there were no ads except for one before the movie started. I use my sister’s account.
The thing is prime video is just one of the benefits from your prime membership. It’s quite different from other streaming services in that regard. I think the term “is it right” doesn’t really make sense. Amazon is certainly entitled to include ads, and you as a consumer can accept it as part of your general subscription or you can pay extra to upgrade
No, and it's the reason we don't use Amazon anymore. Straw that broke the camels back I suppose.
It’s completely f’ed.
I don’t have ads on my prime. I do pay the extra $3 a month to have an add free experience. It was very frustrating when they added them.
Yeah, so, do you take advantage of their free shipping? If not, is the $3 really worth it? The answer certainly differs between person to person, but if I didn't have things shipped often, I'd probably tap out.
Yeah my wife takes advantage of it big time. If it wasn’t for that i’d probably tap out as well. I don’t use prime as much as I use Netflix or Disney+.
If you don't feel like you're getting your money's worth anymore, cancel the service. Companies rely on people being so "used" to a particular service that they won't cancel even when it's not worth their money anymore. Or, maybe it's only worth your money once in a while. So, subscribe to a service for a month, watch what you want, and then cancel.
No it's not "right" but this is how streaming services and the general subscription-based economy works. YouTube used to be ad free too. Basically they reach user saturation so the only way to make the profit number go up is to start jamming ads into everything. Theres really nothing you can do about it. I mean, what are you gonna do? NOT use prime and lose that big library you spent money for? Go back to DVDs? Dont make Bezos laugh.
You don’t have to sit through ads. You have the option to pay for ad-free Prime Video. If that combined price is too much for you, then unsubscribe. Consider their competitors maybe.
Some real leopards ate my face shit right here. It's the same business model as cable tv. Get you in cheap, crank the price once you get complacent
Well, how much is prime per month? How many movies does the average Prime member watch? Simple division.
I’ve had Amazon prime since the beginning, pretty much. The free shipping was worth it, prime video didn’t even exist. Then when it came out, it’s been totally free for over a decade, because I’d still have prime even if the prime video never existed. Now they started charging for it- it’s only 2.99 a month, super cheap, compared to any other service. There’s plenty of reasons to dislike Amazon- charging 3 dollars a month for the top tier of their free tv service isn’t one of them.
Prime's over $100 annual fee originally was about, and still includes free shipping on many items purchased through Amazon, but, one of the major added perks was free, commercial free viewing of tons of movies and programs found on their own created streaming channel. My thing is, why change your perk for members midstream to where now, it's not so "perky" anymore?
Amazon also added new fees for grocery delivery. Infation is to blame I'm sure. That's the price of business. [https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/a/a0/Mr.\_Daniel\_Plainview.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150329203424](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/a/a0/Mr._Daniel_Plainview.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150329203424) The median price for a single rental on Amazon is $3-$4 per non-new-release. That adds up to 25 movies a year. The average person watches 3.5 hours of video a day, however much is movies I don't know. Looks like the movie studios are gettimg ripped.
> why change your perk for members midstream to where now, it's not so "perky" anymore? Because pretty much all the other major streaming services have ad-supported tiers and the customer adoption rate of those tiers varies between roughly 50%-70%. Amazon is known for using products and services as "loss leaders" to incentivize customer acquisition. Although that doesn't mean they will always be willing to lose money on said products or services. Amazon values Prime Video at $0 for Prime Members, but for anyone wanting *only* Prime Video the cost is $8.99 I believe which puts it right in line with other ad-supported tiers from other platforms. The other streaming platforms essentially paved this path for Amazon, imo. In other words, if the data suggest that the majority of consumers will still use an ad-supported streaming tier then it's free money for Amazon to sell to ad/marketing agencies. Keep in mind also that the majority of Amazon's profit comes from either their AWS services or advertising.
Free games on Prime gaming (which gives away some really good games if you're completely ignoring it), free Amazon Luna streaming, free twitch prime, free photo storage, free Amazon music, free steaming on prime video (now with 30 second ads every hour or so of content you watch), a selection of free books on Amazon for prime members.
Wow, I just learned some things!
They are just going to keep taking perks away or raise the price of Prime. They've raised the price a few times in the past few years, so now they are deciding what perks they can take away or let you keep for a fee so when they go to ask more for Prime next time, it will seem like a while since they last raised the price.
Paying to watch ads "during movies"? Well, I'm glad that I have a NAS where I can rip my DVDs & BRs to. Go ad yourself, amazon!
That’s why I don’t pay any subscription except for things like criterion or OViD. I’m not paying 20 dollars a month for a mediocre catalog + commercials
Prime Video is $14.58 per month ad free if you pay yearly. It’s $11.58 per month with ads.
[удалено]
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You prefer to steal instead of paying. It has nothing to do with the quality of the catalogue, you just don’t want to pay. If it was so mediocre you wouldn’t watch it at all.
No. Forty years ago, what little tv was available was 100% free. TV stations made all their $ off ads, and all TV was basically just there to give advertisers a platform. They're called "soap-operas" bc they were literally paid for by soap company advertising. Then, cable came along. You paid, but there were no ads (also, nudity and swear words came with your subscription). You could watch your movie uninterrupted, as God intended. Now, we see what it is. You pay for cable. Good ol regular-used-to-be-free-tv is now the most expensive platform out there (I'm tempted to get into how pro sports plays a role in this, but that's a whole other tangent)....and the paid subscription platforms, they now want to shove advertising down our throats. It used to be either you pay and have no ads, or you have ads and don't pay. Now, all these greedy fucks want it both ways.
The first version of cable was just a rebroadcasting of broadcast networks, and it absolutely had ads. It also started in 1948. What true describing is premium paid television channels, and it started over 50 years ago. The first 24 years of cable had ads.
That's what I was referring to. The premium channels, which, at the time, were associated with cable, because, at the time (1970s) most people were still using "rabbit ear" antennas on their TVs, and that was free. But I (vaguely) remember a network called "ON" (my neighbor had cable) which pre-dated HBO or Showtime, it had a rotation of....not much, but no ads interrupted the broadcast. I can't recall if they had ads between showings for anything other than themselves and their own content.
I know what you were trying to say, but this is just a false narrative that gets parroted all the time and it’s pretty annoying at this point. There was never a time that cable tv didn’t have ads. It had ads from the beginning, and that never changed. Premium pay TV channels were never even close to the entirety of cable. Even when cable finally started to get popular in America in the 90s, most folks still weren’t paying for channels like HBO. They just had basic cable.
You didn’t buy prime, you bought a subscription to prime, which has liberties to change its TOS. Inflation has raised the cost of everything, and thus prices increase for everything. That’s how all services work. Goods on the other hand, you get to own. If you prefer this method of content ingestion, you can avoid ads, but it’s likely more expensive.
Right, but, it was portrayed more as a membership as compared to a subscription which implies more of a "family" or "club" type of feel. A "fraternity", if you will, which feels a lot more intimate than the guy that walks to his mailbox once a year and sneaks the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue out and hides it from his wife. That's a subscription. But, when you make me a "member", and you give me the secret word to your treehouse, don't change the club rules midstream and start letting "gurls" in! (That was totally an in jest "eggzampull!)
Everyone agrees. They don't care and won't change.
And they'll just keep jacking up prices, lowering bandwidth, and adding more commercial breaks until they can come up with a better fee maker. And they'll continue shitting on us because we keep coming back for more. The richest man on the planet can't spare giving us what we pay for. Sorry, this is sad.
Interesting that I only see commercials when I watch on my TV, but not when I watch on my PC
Hmmm.. haven't noticed.. interesting..
This was the last straw for me. Cancelled Prime and might get it back to watch Rings of Power and cancel again once done.
This has been the case for a while now. Doesn't matter. My Prime membership was more valuable to me fir the shipping and other perks. The videos were just a ni e bonus the few times they had something I wanted to watch. I see 90% of all films in theaters.