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.
Yeah, Prime Video already has commercials.
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.
At least they give you a slip button, unlike Paramount+
“We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear 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,”
The double-speak is relatively subtle, but it’s always interesting to see how much work they put into gaslighting their customers:
- “No action is required from you…” - yes, Amazon hopes we do nothing, but Amazon unilaterally changed the assumptions underlying agreement, so “no action” is an acquiescence to a materially worse reality for us and a better one for Amazon.
- “…there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership” - yes, no additional dollars are required because Amazon is now selling our time and attention, but that is still a new “fee” we are paying.
Pretty gross, Amazon.
The enshittification will continue until profit margins improve
FYI here is a site with instructions on how to cancel your prime membership since it’s not the easiest thing to find.
I was able to cancel on the mobile app using this same process.
Pirate services are cheaper and have better apps
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.
Then there is a price change you damn dimwit, you just gave the shitty tier the same pricing as the old normal tier, and amped up the normal tier by $3.00. I absolutely hate the wording for this, you just know it was to be able to not release the ad membership at a lower price.
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.
The shitshow of video streaming continues!
And bring that keg of mead on board with ya, ya dastardly scallywags 🏴☠️
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!
The only reason I still have Prime Video is because of a super weird bug where it tries to charge an already expired card. Somehow, it doesn’t register as expired and I can just “renew” it every month
Even though I don’t have Prime, Amazon’s moves are making other sites more attractive. Walmart has been pretty good recently, offering 2-3 day shipping at no additional cost in my experience, along with a better app UI/UX. Now that Amazon has upped the minimum for free shipping, the only edge it holds over Walmart is the wider selection.
Looks like I’m cancelling.
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.
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Amazon replacements:
- Audiobooks: Libro.fm (no DRM)
- eBooks: eBooks.com (specifically, their DRM-free section)
- Shopping: basically any major online retailer’s website
- Electronics: System76 (for gaming machines), ThinkPenguin (for FOSS machines)
- Groceries: your local grocer, lol.
As for video streaming, it’s going to take a breakup of the Big Tech monopolies via revival of anti-trust laws to fix that. Hear the first chapter of The Internet Con (skip to 2m5s) by Cory Doctorow for more on that.
