I’d seen rumours online but got the email this morning.

EDIT: seems like there won’t be ads for everyone straight away.

  • Live events, such as sports, and content offered through Amazon Freevee will continue to include advertising. Customers in the Republic of Ireland, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man won’t see ads in their experience at this time.
  • banazir@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    You don’t actually have to pay Amazon anything. I suggest you consider this.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Exactly.

      I canceled my sub when I got the email. I’m going to pirate anything I want to see from them from now on.

      • GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
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        6 months ago

        Consider: Pirate everything. It’s just a race to the bottom. The average you can charge for an ad tiered service will just continue shifting up as each streaming service gently increases their ad-free prices. If it was ~$15/mo avg before this, now Netflix sees the avg price go to $15.57/mo. If you’re going to increase the price by 57¢ you might as well make it a nice round $1…Then Hulu sees the average go to $16.13 so then they need to increase their prices. So on and so forth until we’re back to paying $60/mo like we did for cable TV.

        And here’s the kicker. They’re legally obligated to do this because they could be sued by shareholders for not trying to make more money. And that’s without mentioning that they actually prefer people to watch the ads because they generate more revenue from sponsored advertising. Pirating is ethical and cool. Paying subscription fees to trillion dollar corporations is cringe.

        • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          Profit margins are the concern of people who actually respect capitalism, which I do not.

          Steal, motherfucking, everything.

  • Matt The Horwood@lemmy.horwood.cloud
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    6 months ago

    that looks to be almost all steaming services adding an ad-supported option, you now pay to not have ads.

    Back to the high sea’s to watch anything then

    • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Edit: ignore this. They actually do offer an adfree sub

      But Amazon is not doing this. They show ads on the one subscription they have, that they already recently have raised the price for. This is higher price for lower quality and no option to upgrade or downgrade. They leave you the option to stay or leave

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    6 months ago

    Options:

    1. Pay no extra and suffer annoying adverts in all movies and shows.

    2. Pay an extra £35.88 a year to get the same awful experience you had before.

    3. Save £95 a year and cancel it. Spend your savings on a VPN, and look into Jellyfin, Radarr and Sonarr. BEST VALUE

    • Neato@ttrpg.network
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      6 months ago

      How does a VPN give you access to shows on Amazon that require Prime? Or do you mean it’ll just give you access to more shows than you’d have otherwise?

      • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        like the other poster said it doesnt give you access to amazon’s shows on amazon’s site. Helpful pirates all over the world tirelessly upload “amazon’s” content to the grand line. When I tell people about a show I’m loving it’s always an interesting conversation when they ask me ‘what service is it on?’ and i straight up have no idea.

        perhaps you already know this, but if you don’t, MOST pirate streaming sites have everything from every service right there in a searchable webpage that looks like (usually a discount version but sometimes superior) a paid streaming site.

        It’s not even cope to say they are generally easier to navigate and search than the services you have to PAY for. All you need is ublock origin <—(non-negotiable) and you have access to a superior service IMMEDIATELY.

  • PM_ME_YOUR_ZOD_RUNES@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    I cancelled Prime as soon as I got this email. It was set to renew in February so perfect timing. I also sent them an email to provide some feedback about the change:

    I cancelled my membership as soon as I received notification that you would be including ads to a PAID streaming service. I cannot believe that you think asking for more money per month to have an ad free experience is ok. The world is going to shit because of greedy corporations like you. I hope you go bankrupt and Jeff Bezos goes looking for the Titanic in a poorly made submarine.

  • makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    And I just cancelled. Fuck them. This is 1990’s pay TV repeating itself. I’m not playing that part of history again.

  • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Honestly, I would love to believe everyone here, but I remember Netflix last year with eliminating password sharing and how everyone lost their collective minds about it. I thought dam Netflix will really get it this time, then it turns out Netflix was right and they actually gained subscriptions from doing it.

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
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    6 months ago

    Won’t help with live events, but over time, a NAS & a VPN is cheaper than streaming.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      You mean the lip sync concerts?

      Or the sports which can easily cost over 100 to watch some sweaty guys make millions while you scream at your tv?

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    Funny that it’s 2.99 no matter what currency you’re using… I’m saving money by living in Canada!

  • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 months ago

    I dropped Prime before any of this happened. I was paying mostly for the two-day shipping, which became increasingly longer than two days.

    What made me quit it was when I ordered two of the same item from the same seller, but one shipped from the seller and one direct from Amazon. Both were listed in stock. The one shipped by the seller arrived in three days. The one shipped by Amazon had not yet shipped after the first week. I even contacted the seller, who suggested I cancel, but Amazon wouldn’t accept my cancelation, so I had to wait more than two weeks for it to ship.

    Turns out I was a fool to be paying Amazon all that time for a sub-optimal service. And I’ve saved so much money ever since when I can’t just buy things with free shipping. In fact, I rarely buy anything from Amazon at all anymore.

    So this? This tracks with the direction they’ve been heading for a long time, and it doesn’t surprise me one bit.

  • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    We need to show you ads for your sake. It’s so that we can make more and better content for you, so that you and even more, stay subscribed, even though we also just raised subscription fees. It’s not because we want the money. It’s for your sake we’re doing this!