Amazon Prime will cost an extra $2.99 or play ads starting Jan. 29 | Mashable.
Amazon Prime as we know it will cost an extra $2.99 starting Jan. 29
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| Credit: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images |
Starting January 29, you're going to have to cough up an additional $2.99 each month to watch Prime Video movies and TV shows without ads. That's right, the latest innovation in calculated misery comes courtesy of the Bezos bunch over at Amazon HQ, who have realized that they can make even more money off of Prime subscribers, who already shell out $14.99 per month.
If you don't feel like paying the additional $2.99, no action is required from you at this time, and there is a small silver lining: in an email to subscribers, Amazon said it "aim[ed] to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers."
The email also underscored the value of Prime, noting that Prime shipping, streaming video content, live sports, and a free year of GrubHub+ are included.
With this change, first announced in September, Amazon joins Disney as one of the latest streamers to charge a premium for ad-free viewing. In October, the House of Mouse began charging users $13.99 a month in the U.S. for ad-free Disney+, compared to $7.99 for it's ad-supported service.
Topics Streaming
Remember when streaming was a great alternative? Those days are gone.
ReplyDeleteI speak for everyone here when I say "We are still wondering what happened to two day shipping."
ReplyDeleteWe should have a class action suit as 2 day prime is all over the contract.
DeleteI’m canceling I need to spend less time watching TV anyway
ReplyDeleteEvelyn Chandler's expertise in trading has been a game-changer for me. Join us and let her guide you to your financial breakthrough."https://www.facebook.com/EvelynsEliteTrades?mibextid=LQQJ4d
DeleteBig deal. There are way fever ads on any streaming service than cable/satellite and even an antenna.
ReplyDeleteDumped Netfix when they made some stupid changes it may happen with Amazon as well.
ReplyDeleteJeff Bezos needs more super yacht/space ship money!
ReplyDeleteIsn’t this bait & switch? How can you change terms of service all of a sudden on long term customers? 🤷🏽♀️
ReplyDeletedump them #cancelamazon
Deletel'm Paying out 5 GRAND to the first 8 people to message me "PROGRESS " let's end inhumanity cus I feel people going through hard times RN 💰💰
ReplyDeleteYeah this makes it much less of a value…
ReplyDeleteI don't really need two day shipping... and I very infrequently watch prime. This may be the incentive I need to cancel the service. I am very much not interested in ads. I am not worried about running out of content on Netflix, Disney+, and AppleTV.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the user interface absolutely sucks. For a multi-billion-dollar-profits company this is absolutely shameful.
DeleteI would definitely be dropping Prime if the cash back from the credit card weren't so good. Easily pays for Prime.
ReplyDeleteExactly my problem. This year, we kept the points unspent until the Holidays. Had enough to cover a surprising number of gifts for kiddos
DeleteDoes it? IIRC, you get 3% cashback on Amazon from the card without prime, so the benefit of prime is 2% cashback. Prime costs $140 a year. So to pay for itself you'd have to spend $7000 a year on Amazon. Even if you consider the full 5% that'd still require spending $2800 on Amazon alone. That's profitable for Amazon, but probably not for the average user.
DeleteThis is also the only reason I have Prime. I don't really ever need something that I really need free 2 day shipping, but we do order enough that the 5% back on their Visa basically pays for Prime every year.
DeleteHmm. Not looking forward to this. I didn't get the email from Amazon that was referenced in the article though. Not in the spam folder either. Interstitial ads are absolutely the worst - so I get torn between just watching less from Amazon (and put up with ads in say Reacher) or pay the fee to get rid of ads. We don't watch very much from Amazon now, so the answer will likely be the first - watch even less of it.
ReplyDeleteI predict an uptick in 🏴☠️
ReplyDeleteHard drives on sale on Amazon right now. :rimshot:
DeleteUnderrated comment.
DeleteHonestly. Followed by an uptick in legal kludges.
DeleteWhackamole! When you’re an industry who resents its golden goose for laying finite eggs.
I've got a better option: No more Prime Video.
ReplyDeleteIt's not something I've used much.
I don't know what my final answer is going to be, but this leaning tower of downloadable media seems to lean a bit more towards "cancel" every time they "improve" it.
I barely watch Amazon as it is. The only reason I have Prime is for shipping and Amazon Fresh/WholeFoods. Not that they don't have good shows, just that it's always the very last option for me when I'm looking to watch something. I barely even think about it.
ReplyDeleteTheir shows are quite good. Reacher alone is worth it. Good Omens, Fleabag, Jack Ryan, Upload. Not terrible.
DeleteThe shows might be worth it but given how pitiful the rest of prime has become where shipping is more like 4 to 10 days now it might be worth it to do like I do with Max or Disney sign up for a month to watch the shows I missed and then turn it off after that till a few shows build up again. Makes more sense than paying year round for something I only watch a few hours of each year.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRh-dzrI4Z4
ReplyDeleteThe frustrating thing is feeling like I'm paying Prime Video, a service I don't care about, (and so many other benefits I don't use) when I was originally subscribing to Amazon Prime for the shipping benefit. I definitely use the shipping benefit enough to justify the expense even as I try to shift more and more away from using Amazon, but have no way to opt out of all the price increases which have inevitably come as the result of all these additional "features" of the subscription.
ReplyDeleteAt some point (soon?) the total price will tip over to where the right solution will be cancelling Prime altogether and paying for fast shipping when I need it.
I agree. I would pay for a tier where they split Amazon Prime Video out to its own service and lower the Prime cost. But they won't do that. Prime membership is the only thing propping up that service. If it were standalone no one would bother imo.
DeleteThis is my thing, mostly for hassle-free returns when they fuck up a shipment (which happens due to seller fraud, shipping incidents/damage, swapping out one thing for another, etc.). But I have to question how long the shipping will be bundled with the video service.
DeleteBut when the "hassle-free returns" turned into a nightmare once too often, I rage quit. My wife still wanted it, and is now paying for it. From that aspect, the free shipping at the current price point is acceptable, even if they're getting worse with respect to "hassle-free returns". At least I'm not the one wasting my money AND time dealing with it.
I don't do their videos at all, mostly because the video UI is so fucking hard to traverse on a computer (they obviously made it for a TV now). And, frankly I can think of only a few original shows I liked, but never went back for season two because of the kludgy UI. I haven't watched a Prime video in months.
So if my wife is fine with ads, that's up to her. It won't impact me, and I won't be bothering with it at all.
Amazon Prime is about the free shipping and Prime Video is a 'free toy in the cereal box' you get on top just like Prime Music, Reading and Gaming.
DeleteThe price increases will always happen it's called inflation.
The enshitification continues. My Plex/arr server seems to be growing in value. I have no problem paying for content, as long as the provider is selling a better product than piracy can offer (Spotify/AppleMusic for example). Piracy isn’t even all that cheap (server hardware, electricity, VPN/Usenet/indexer subscriptions, etc).
ReplyDeleteGranted most people I know who pay for Prime do it for the shipping. The video service is an after-thought. With this new announcement, it becomes even less valuable. Looks like my husband and I will be watching the next season of Wheel of Time via Plex, despite paying for Prime 🤷♀️
"Starting January 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements,"
ReplyDeleteI fucking assure you they will do no such thing in my house. Goodbye Amazon Prime, hello The Pirate Bay.
Prices are still within the acceptable territory (except for Netflix I think). But increases are coming at ever smaller intervals along with added costs that weren't there before like paying a tax for sharing unused screens with people outside of your network. I dropped Netflix already. Prime is the next on the list and the high seas have become an inviting possibility once again after a long time.
ReplyDeleteEnshitification sucks. Wall Street needs for short term profits is a cancer.
This is such a crappy move!
ReplyDeleteI pay for this service, Amazon Prime, and have for years and years and they've decided that's not good enough? This, combined with the way they've enshitified my Fire TV over the last three years (full screen ads when idle, reworked UI to show more of their stuff and less of mine, and just a general noticeable reduction in overall responsiveness from UI interactions to streaming video),has me convinced the right move is to cancel Prime on Jan 29.
Why can't good products, that, again, I actually pay constantly for, stay good?!
:(
lol, lesson 1, how to loose subscribers, show adds?
ReplyDeleteDid anyone really think they'd be able to resist leaving all that lovely, lovely ad money on the table forever?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ilGmdDTi0U
It is like dogs marking their territory. They just have this urge to shove ads in your face. Thou shall consume the ads.
DeleteThis is a meh. Only have Prime Video due to having Prime and rarely used PV.
ReplyDeletePrime may be on its way out due to having two instances of being sold goods from what looked like the vendor's Prime store only for it to turn out to be a re-seller and the goods failing and Prime offering no help and the vendor not supporting the product for obvious reasons. My wife and I are about done with Prime and we both go direct to vendor sites to purchase most things to ensure we do not get items that are not what they appear to be. Prime feels like it's going the way of eBay for reliability and the review system seems entirely gamed even when re-sorting them for most recent rather than popular.
I agree that their review system is broken. I was blocked from leaving a review for a shoddy product I purchased from them nine months prior. According to Amazon Support, they switched suppliers for the product, so the product ID no longer matched what I bought. But the old link and all of the old reviews carried over.
DeleteAn unscrupulous manufacturer could just switch suppliers every three months before their products start to fail and a deluge of negative reviews start to pour in.
There's a time for raising prices. I don't think this is that time. People are more broke than ever and streaming entertainment is one of the few bright points many people have (I have health issues that keep my stuck at home, and it's a lifeline).
ReplyDeleteAt the rate things are going I'll have to start cancelling paid streaming services to save money.
No problem, I was going to drop my Prime subscription when my kid no longer needed diaper and other supplies. The value of a Prime subscription steadily decreased over the years anyway.
ReplyDeleteOkay, how about a version that is cheaper because it doesn't have the crappy, ad-laden streaming product attached to it?
ReplyDeleteWith every streaming service getting ad-supported tier and content between platforms splintered, we've just came back to cable TV.
ReplyDeleteOnly difference is it's easier to cancel, hop around, at least for now...
Oh and it's IPTV only, that's a difference I forgot. Although a lot of modern cable is IPTV
I wonder if this is going to include playing ads in episodes/movies that you pay for, that is, those that aren't "free" for Prime Video Subscribers? Paying to watch a TV show, on top of Prime, and getting ads as well would definitely drive me to piracy, and I believe very strongly that content creators deserve to be compensated. But the mechanism to do so must be fair to the consumer as well.
ReplyDeleteBlyat!, I get enough value out of Prime to grit my teeth and bear it, as long as there are fewer and less annoying commercials than Peacock. I could probably afford ad-free with the money I saved by canceling Netflix but I'd sooner hoist the Jolly Roger than give them more money,
ReplyDeleteLike most people, I first subscribed to Prime for the shipping benefits. The video and audio were nice perks, but the number of new shows worth watching has really dwindled, like it has from the other streaming services. I used to like the audio because I could listen to a song, decide to buy the mp3 if i wanted, but now it won't even let you listen to much of anything unless you pay for their "unlimited" version. Where does all this add on fee crap end?
ReplyDeleteI used to use Amazon Music as a way of avoiding having to buy Spotify, apple music, etc. You cant do it anymore, its on par with the free versions of the Spotify.
DeleteI bought a new Mac recently and got a 3 month apple music subscription. I think I am going to keep it after the free sub is over. Not cheap, but I like having a real streaming music app now.
With Video, I don't recall ever watching it. I think I have it logged in on my main TV, but I never watch it. Its either D+, Netflix, or the free PBS apps for the kids.
I really wish the shipping service and video service were a la carte.
ReplyDeleteYou can get the video service without the shipping service, but I don't think you can do the reverse.
DeleteThis does not affect me since I already pirate any content that I would watch from them anyways. Streaming companies have done nothing to show me that their paid version offers a better service.
ReplyDelete$10,000 says Amazon starts showing ads to people on Twitch who are subbed to specific channels, overriding the #1 feature of subs, by the end of 2024. Amazon has already increased the price of "Turbo" from $4.99 to $11.99 a month over the past three years. I would expect Amazon to increase that to $15 a month or higher and remove the ad-free option on subs. Amazon has already shown that they don't care about broadcasters, only ad revenue.
ReplyDeleteMaybe 1 good show every 3 months? Occasionally a movie worth watching? A weak back catalog? Prime "2-Day Shipping" is so inconsistent now. 2 days, if you're lucky. Shady pricing schemes? Market manipulation? Fake markups for pretend discounts? GTFOH. They're going to lose more than they gain with the Prime cancellations. I was on the fence previously but this has made my decision easy. Amazon is easily replaced with Best Buy and Target except for the cheap little imported peripherals and the random obscure items (which aren't worth the Prime fee). Bye bye.
ReplyDeleteI need fast shipping (including "I need this one thing that costs less than the free-shipping threshold") maybe once every two years, so I only get prime when they give me a free trial. I did just sign up for Prime Video just to watch Good Omens S2 and cancel. Looks like I picked the right time to do it! Nine bucks for six episodes of Gaiman (and Sheen and Tennant, who are adorable together) is an easy choice for me. Though I agree with TheNinja that the UI appears to be a deliberate kick in the face.
ReplyDeleteMost of their new content they produce has commercial pauses built into the flow. I doubt anyone's going to pay the $2.99 to skip those commercials.
ReplyDeleteSigh. Ads. Fucking ads.
ReplyDeleteFuck ads. Fuck advertisers. Fuck executives that decide to push ads.
Of course, they claim they'll be limited and far fewer than competitors... for now. But gradually, they'll increase them more and more... it's inevitable.
We left Prime a year or two ago, since the two-day shipping advantages have vaporized, duplication/copies abound, and the rating system is f*cked....and now we can get it monthly when/if we want it, for less, like just before Pagan Gifting Day!
ReplyDeleteThat said...we had Prime Video for $8.99/mo off and on while that lasted...then it's $14.99/mo for Prime...no Video only option, to watch any Prime content...now it's going to be $17.99/mo for no ads...
Hey, I'm just glad we can turn it off when we're done, and wait a year for the next season(s) of content, or shopping season. Thanks to everyone else out there in Prime-land for keeping the faucet on year around, so the price isn't even higher?
In my experience, nothing that was ad-free has ever lasted long being ad-free. I have never fallen for Prime, despite their efforts with "free" shipping and returns. Fuck Prime, fuck ads, and fuck McAfee. Have a nice day.
ReplyDeleteMy annual Prime subscription is paid through May. Does this mean they are changing the service I already paid for? Can I get my money back!?
ReplyDeleteWhat are people's viewing habits like nowadays?
ReplyDeleteIf binging is as popular as I think then I'd expect money conscious people to rotate services. It's got to the price level where the mild effort is worth it.
churn is no effort at all right now, but I can't see that lasting.
DeleteI will give Prime Video some credit, it's the only streaming service I've used where a movie or show (barring a new season release) I've down rated hasn't popped back into my recommendations list and is fairly prompt at removing them from the list. It even lets you hide them so they don't show up elsewhere on your home screen (for the most part). Granted, it still leaves the list full of things I've already watched and/or upped, but the negative filter at least seems to work.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, most of the things I've been watching just use Prime as a launchpad to other apps or services while not really being much within the service for me.
Considering I have access to Prime, I think I'll just grab the shows I want to see via Usenet and skip this debacle with Jellyfin. Not that many shows I'm interested in there anyway. I'm just about ready to pull the plug and use the streaming sub money to buy physical media again. Dont these companies get I WANT to pay for the content????
ReplyDeleteNo, they do not.
DeleteThey're phasing out physical media. Disney are no longer (or shortly will no longer) releasing physical media in Australia - I suspect as a bit of test of the wider market.
I think the only thing I have watched on Prime was The Peripheral (with Chloë Grace Moretz). Quite good, made me read the book and the sequel, but not a reason to pay a monthly subscription.
ReplyDeleteI already told my wife that I'm dropping Prime completely when our next renewal date is up (next August unfortunately) - in part because of this PV price increase to keep ad-free.
ReplyDeleteTheir product selection sucks ass unless you want to buy junk. I've almost always had a better experience buying from other local retailers or direct from the manufacturer.
So...I was on the fence about Prime this year and went to monthly renewals back in September. After discussing it, we decided the fast shipping COMBINED with the Video made it worth it.
ReplyDeleteAdd to that, we were recently with folks who were watching TV with commercials and were reminded how annoying they are.
Today we cancelled Prime and it will end on 21 Jan. We're not going to pay $20/month for ad-free video...
All of our Amazon orders are >$25 so we get free shipping anyway and we're not so disorganised that we need 2 day delivery.
I've only ever tried to watch one Amazon show with ads: UK Law & Order. The ads were shoved into the show not in places where ads made sense, but instead would be dropped into dialogue-heavy scenes. So a character would be mid-sentence, an ad would abruptly show for 2 minutes (no pause or fading in and out), and the show would return to the precise spot it had left. It was confusing, jarring, and unwatchable. After 2 commercial breaks, I abandoned all ad-supported stuff on Amazon.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not going back.
As others have said, having the Prime Visa still makes Prime worth it (just barely), so I'm not canceling Prime now. But I'm not paying for ads, and I'll cancel my Visa with the next price hike.
Firefox with ublock origin has blocked ads on Hulu, Max, and YouTube for me. I expect it will do the same for Prime video. Still a disappointment and a good reason to reconsider the subscription in general, given Amazon's poor reputation for product and employment quality.
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder if Amazon Prime being "One Amazon" is a good idea. Sure they lock us in. For Apple I bundle a few services like iCloud storage for backups of photos but nothing else. Apple TV+ recent price increase was too much (I like the shows, I just can't afford them), so I canceled the subscription (maybe I'll sign up in Feb and binge Slow Horses). As I don't have a Mac, I don't see value in Apple One (I have Microsoft 365 instead, mostly for the 1TB storage and Excel). I use OneDrive to backup my iCloud.
ReplyDeleteIt makes budgeting and picking which services I "need to have" more complicated. Do I actually use Prime shipping (or use it enough to warrant the new price).
With Amazon, you can pay more, but not less. So I have to consider unsubscribing from ALL of Prime. I can't remove just the Streaming. Although, I don't actually pay for Prime, its a free service paid for by my bank (one of the Cash Back incentives). So maybe I can afford $3 :)
Netflix, Disney+ is all or none. that makes sense, there's only 1 service. But Amazon feels more like Apple One+, a giant bundle of everything. Unlike Apple, you can't cherry-pick a bundle of the services that you use. Its just "Do you want ads with that?"
I appreciated them including the "Manage Account" link in the email. That made it really easy to cancel the Prime Membership.
ReplyDeleteAmazon also seems to be pushing their Kindle Unlimited really hard ($12/month). I tried to buy the Kindle version of a book the other day, but the app would only let get it through that service. In order to just buy the standalone electronic version, I had to go to the webpage and click through a couple links to get the option.
ReplyDeleteI always love this logical disconnect in these threads:
ReplyDelete"Piracy is always an access issue!"
"You can still have the things, but the things will cost a couple dollars more."
"Yarrr"
.... any way, the email reminded me to just cancel Prime. I don't even watch anything on Prime any more, and the nearest fulfillment centre is like 10km away, so I get same or next day shipping about two thirds of the time even without Prime.
Jokes on them I cancelled my Amazon account last year!
ReplyDeleteWith linear TV running 23 minutes of ads per 60 minutes their promise of fewer ads could still be pretty awful.
ReplyDeleteI cannot think of a better example of why capitalism American style is bad for consumers — you have to pay extra to NOT have to watch ads (that I, for one, utterly ignore anyhow). What a scam. Calling FTC. Hello? Don't worry, I'm not holding my breath.
ReplyDeleteThe enshitification continues. This could be the end of Prime video for us.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about anyone else, but for me, if Amazon had just bumped their Prime subscription fee a bit, that wouldn't have seemed so bad. A bit rich coming from a company as big and profitable as Amazon but meh - prices going up is the way of the world, content costs money to make etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteBut, as it is, it feels like I'm just being asked to pay more just to avoid watching ads. As in 'that's a nice ad-free service you've got - be a shame if something happened to it.' Not at all rational, I admit, but that's what it feels like.
Oh well. Time to cancel Prime and resubscribe for a couple of months at a time to catch the latest seasons of Wheel of Time or Rings of Power. Yes - I did enjoy them both enough to make them worth the money. :)
Ads and commercials are at epidemic levels. An NFL game is over 3 hrs long. Ads take up 1 hr and 15 min. But the ball is in play for only 11 minutes.
ReplyDeleteThe rest is replays, commentaries and players just standing around doing nothing. The number of NFL ads have almost doubled in 15 years. 63 vs 113.
I don’t even bother with Amazon’s Thursday Night Football. I mostly just watch the NFL Red Zone on Sundays which is awesome. And why exactly did Amazon axe Amazon Drive?
It's shocking to me that all of the MBAs in charge of these platforms are incapable of doing basic math.
ReplyDelete"Oh, we need more revenue, let's increase prices or add advertising."
service loses customers
"Oh, we need more revenue because we lost subscribers, let's increase pricing or advertising."
service loses customers
Repeat ad nauseum until the service folds because the company can't keep it afloat. This really isn't all that difficult to comprehend, and neither is it a new shell game for either the companies or the consumers. It's just stunning that while chasing the almighty dollar for their shareholders, they end up making their shareholders less money.
I remember signing up for Prime - back when it first became available - my goal was just to get my crap faster. Years later, Amazon has tacked god-knows-what to Prime - 99% things I don't care about, jacked up the price something awful, and I still only just want my crap faster.
ReplyDeleteHow about creating separate Prime programs for folks that want different aspects of Prime, and maybe one"mother Prime," for those who got deeper pockets? Perhaps this is the beginning of that - if so, great. If not, I feel like this is a great opportunity for a future competitor to get their foot in the door.
All I can think when I see the phrase " limited ads " is, how long till limited ads turns into full ads .
ReplyDeleteSeriously Amazon, go f yourself
Coincidentally, $3 per month is the exact same cost as a VPN through NordVPN. Seems like a sign from god to me. Bye bye Amazon Prime.
ReplyDeleteIf this is motivating folks to cancel their Prime, as it is for me, may I humbly suggest mentioning their union-busting tactics with warehouse employees when they ask why you're cancelling?
ReplyDeleteI already canceled, so now I can’t cancel over this. 😔
ReplyDeletePrime is already a super low value proposition, I've only not cancelled for my parent's sake.
ReplyDeleteIn January I'll be cancelling.
What is limited ads? 30 seconds once, 30 seconds every 15 minutes, 2 minutes pre roll? The more I see an ad for something the less likely I am to ever consider purchasing it. If you have to advertise heavily, the product likely isn't good. Think Medicare part C.
ReplyDeleteMy use case for prime I live out in the country, I have a post office box for mail in a post office with limited hours so getting a package mailed to me was a pita as the post office closed before I left work.
So prime got me UPS and delivery to my door. I killed Netflix that I wasn't watching enough to make it a good deal and I got Prime Video.
At first it was pretty good but now it takes days for Amazon to actually ship an order, it gets here in a day or two when they do. I get it that I'm an expensive customer to get things to due to distance and density.
My prime renews on 1/20 so I won't get to see the ads before they take effect. I think I'll cancel and use the post office now that I'm retired and can get there when they are open. I don't think there is a penalty to signing back up later. As far as I know, I'm not getting a discount for being a repeat Prime customer.
Edit:
I just got the email.
I recently cancelled Prime because I can't really find anything to watch on there that I'm interested in. Now they want an additional $36 so we don't have to waste our time with watching silly ads. No thanks
ReplyDeleteMy Amazon Prime account was due to renew in a couple of weeks, thanks for the reminder to let it run out.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, this is going to get me to take a good look at the decreasing number of benefits a Prime membership gets me, and finally consider just dropping it altogether.
ReplyDeleteDrop canvas!
ReplyDeleteRun out the guns!
……and bring me that horizon.
🌊⛵️🏴☠️
That's a no from me, dawg. That's the straw that broke the camels back. I'll be cancelling my prime.
ReplyDeleteJust another change further enshittening Prime membership.
ReplyDeleteI live in a major metro and 1- or 2-day shipping is available without the membership or from a host of other major retailers. The initial novelty of that from the infancy of the online shopping era has long worn off. I do enjoy the extra cashback at Whole Foods and on purchases with the co-branded Visa card, but I certainly don't get enough back to offset the Prime membership fee. Their streaming video catalogue is very mediocre despite the millions they've pumped into original programming over the last few years, and now it has ads unless you cough up another monthly fee. Great.
I honestly feel like I get the most perceived value on a month-to-month basis from the free Twitch subscription, but that's no different than me just paying with cash. I'm on a shared Prime membership with a family member so it doesn't directly affect me, but I will definitely advocate for them to cancel their membership when it's next up for renewal. Just not worth it anymore.
Prime Video was always weird. Supposedly I pay for the service, but at least half the content I want to watch there I have to pay for separately ("rent" or "buy"). Adding ads to it would be pretty bad and would make me use the service even less.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I guess my taste is different from most commenters here. For me, in terms of contents available Prime Video is miles ahead of Netflix... I am currently deciding whether to drop Netflix subscription, not Prime (one of my New Year projects is to review my watching history to help me make a decision). When I look for a particular movie I want to watch I practically never find it on Netflix, but often find it on Prime Video; and I pretty much never like movies Netflix suggests for me, so I've basically stopped trying. With "shows" the situation on Netflix is a bit better, not a desert, but not a lush garden either.
Ah winter, when the North is tucked away all warm in their houses as the cold creeps in outside. What a great time to hike prices.
ReplyDeleteMy hope: Enough people will drop Prime that they will restore ad-free in March.
ReplyDeleteMy plan: catch up on anything I care about before Jan 29, then decide whether I use Prime enough to want it without the videos. If I keep it, maybe I'll treat it like the other services and opt-in for 1 month once a year.
I canceled Prime when the the price increase was first reported and my subscription period expired in like early October? Hard to tell because I didn't really notice.
ReplyDeleteI already canceled my Prime subscription and will give Walmart+ a try. I know some people using Walmart+ and they seem happy with it so hopefully it will work out for me as well.
ReplyDeleteEven if Walmart+ turns out to be a bust, I won't go back to Prime unless they offer a shipping only version of Prime for under $100.
I dropped Disney when they announced the increase
ReplyDeleteI dropped Netflix after the last increase
I don't really need same day Prime shipping, looks like I'll be dropping Prime
I wonder how long these services will allow you to sign up for just a month at a time to binge watch everything new
Goddamit, of course they will do this the year they come out with the Fallout series.
ReplyDeleteI'm screen-recording the shows I watch there before this kicks in.
ReplyDeleteNo the fuck I won’t. Looks like Prime wasn’t satisfied with jacking up prices and slightly worse shipping all while strangling their business partners.
ReplyDeleteThis frog is out of the pot.
I've been a Prime member continuously since 2012. Over the last year, I've considered cancelling it because it's clear that Amazon has become basically a poorly run flea market. There are so many problems with crappy products from unknown Chinese brands, counterfeit products, and what I think should be considered fraud with regards to various forms of review manipulation. Unlike many here, I do watch things on Prime Video fairly frequently so it does affect me.
ReplyDeleteWith this change I've made the decision to drop my Prime subscription after the NFL game tomorrow - the last one on Prime Video this season. I'll miss the Subscribe & Save feature to some extent, but I'll manage.
This just reminded me to cancel my PrimeMusic subscription. I'm still on the fence about giving up PrimeShipping, but that is the only service I have with them now. They raise it one more time though and that's gone too.
ReplyDelete