Amazon Prime Video Is Reportedly Planning An Ad-Supported Tier

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is preparing to launch an ad-supported tier of Prime Video. The Verge reports: Amazon currently offers Prime Video as part of its $14.99 per month Prime membership or for $8.99 per month as a standalone subscription. Subscribers can tack on other ad-free subscriptions to services like Max, Paramount Plus, and Showtime through Prime Video Channels. As noted by the WSJ, Amazon is currently weighing several ways it could implement ads in Prime Video, such as showing more ads to existing Prime subscribers and then offering an "option to pay more for an ad-free alternative and other features." The ad breaks will reportedly be "short," but there's still no word on whether it will beat Max's promised three to four minutes of ads per hour or how much the tier will cost.

Additionally, the WSJ reports that Amazon is in talks with Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount to start offering the ad-supported versions of Max and Paramount Plus within its Prime Video Channels. The company could also place a bid for the streaming rights to the National Basketball Association games when they expire in 2025, potentially bolstering its sports streaming lineup, which currently includes Thursday Night Football.

Wasn't that supposed to be freeve?

[williamyf]

They already have a free tier service. Is called freeve. Put the adds there... Easy peassy

Re:Wasn't that supposed to be freeve?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Freevee already has ads. It used to be IMDb TV.

But yeah, I'm wondering what the difference between this new offering and Freevee is supposed to be.

Re: Wasn't that supposed to be freeve?

[madbrain]

Easy. In one case you pay to see ads. In another, the ads are free.
I do hope they retain the current adless tier.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Odds are good they just kill off Freevee (which I've never heard of, heh) and send the users to Amazon's free tier for capture opportunities.

Re:

[radarskiy]

FreeVee is for content that the rightsholders won't license under Amazon Prime Video's terms, not an ad-supported version of Amazon Prime Video. It's actually different stuff.

Ad-supported Amazon Prime Video is still under Amazon Prime Video's terms, so there would be no magical merger between the two.

Amazon Prime Member's Thoughts

[crunchy_one]

I've been thinking about cancelling my Prime membership because of the increasing shitification of their store. Prime used to be my go to for value and service, but 2 day shipping has degraded into 2 weeks if ever, higher and higher prices, and a veritable swamp of counterfeit stuff from marketplace sellers, leaves me using it less and less. The only reason I hang on is a member of my household loves to watch Prime Video. The moment ads start rolling, I'm gone.

Re:

[Powercntrl]

TFS says Prime Video is available as a stand-alone subscription. I have the opposite issue - I only want the shipping membership and couldn't care less about Amazon's streaming offerings. Ever since Trek went to Paramount there's been nothing on Prime that interests me, and I don't think my partner watches anything besides YouTube, Disney+, and the movies on our media server.

Re:

[Woldscum]

yes this

Re:

[The-Ixian]

Yeah, I cancelled my Prime membership a while back and haven't missed it. I was hanging on to it for the Video subscription but there hasn't been much to watch on there lately.

I have gone back to pre-Amazon days of going to the vendor website and ordering direct.

Good way to easily know who you're dealing with

[Pierre Pants]

In the (not so far) future many paid "streaming services" will have "ad-supported tiers", and if I find out that someone opted to pay for the "ad-supported plan", I'll know they're an unstable psychopath with no morals. Before anyone claims that it makes sense for some people to pay less because it costs less, inflation blabla: You're the problem. Anyone who thinks that the horrible cancer of commercials on TV should be allowed to continue is a either incredibly dumb or a lowlife. If only very few people op

Re:

[dlarge6510]

Yeah I like to watch on, you know, the TV. They BIG screen thing plugged into the BIG box that is connected to 5 BIG speakers.

Not my browser running on my PC stuffed in the corner of the living room with a particually uncomfortable chair. Oh and I like full 1080p HD, not the 720p I must put up with because I use Linux as my only operating system and that means I have no DRM and so muct be a pirate.

Re:

[Cpt_Kirks]

When I wired my Batcave, I included a 30 foot HDMI run in the walls, from my computer area to the big screen.

Works great.

I also have a Pi 3 with a 5TB drive mounted on the back of the TV.

Re:

[dhizzle]

If I understand correctly, cable TV was an escape from the rabbit ears and ads. For a few minutes. Seeing a pattern here.

funny

[Espectr0]

considering the fire tv platform is full of ads already. anyway, more choice is always good

Arrrrr matey

[Powercntrl]

This is why I run my own home media server and have Android TV boxes running Kodi hooked up to each of my TVs. Sooner or later, all streaming services pull a "Darth Vader" and alter the deal. Including: pulling shows you liked to watch from the service, jacking up the bill, and/or adding ads.

As usual, the high seas provide a superior user experience.

Re:

[dlarge6510]

I've heard of Kodi.

So have the police.

They like arresting Kodi users in my country.

I like having my front door in full working order.

Re:

[Cpt_Kirks]

I've heard of Kodi.

So have the police.

They like arresting Kodi users in my country.

I like having my front door in full working order.

Download with a VPN.

No po-lice.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Prime Ads

[StormReaver]

...such as showing more ads to existing Prime subscribers...

Prime already has ads?

Re: Prime Ads

[madbrain]

Ads for other Prime programs. At the start of playback, usually. Not 3rd party ads, though.

Re:

[dlarge6510]

> Prime already has ads?

Oh yes, on some things that do. Like Babylon 5. Imagine my surprise when I found out!

Oh and it was terribly done too. Adverts every few mins, ctting off sentences and breaking up scenes. No thought or anything, just a random number generator resetting a countdown timer till the next advert. Oh and it was largely the SAME advert too.

Are they ****ing kidding?

[dlarge6510]

Seriously, I pay for PRIME because I dont want the adverts. Only FREE services should show adverts.

Living in the UK has probably spoiled me a bit. The free TV we have, I expect it to show adverts, Sky TV also shows adverts but the amount you pay for that as always been low compared to the number of satellite channels there are and ever since they started putting the satellites up adverts were always there.

I like the fact that I dont get adverts on the BBC, for which I pay the TV license and basically pay

Already left

[frankjr]

Prime Video never drew me in because of the limited selection and everything being an upsell. Dropped Prime and while I don't get two-day shipping anymore I was basically just paying them for the privilege of spending even more money with them. Harder to impulse buy when it's going to be a week or more before you get it.

First music, now video.

[dhizzle]

Amazon Prime Music once was neat. It's craptacular for perhaps the last six months. No surprise they're going to encrapify/ monetize this now.