Prime Video Subs Will Soon See Ads for Amazon Products When They Hit Pause (arstechnica.com) 47
Amazon Prime Video subscribers will see new types of advertisements this broadcast year. Amazon announced today that it's adding new ad formats to its video streaming service, hoping to encourage people to interact with the ads and shop on Amazon. From a report: In January, Prime Video streams included commercials unless subscribers paid $3 extra per month. That has meant that watching stuff on Prime Video ad-free costs $12 per month or, if you're also a Prime subscriber, $18 per month. Amazon has heightened focus on streaming ads this year. Those who opted for Prime Video with commercials will soon see shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive brand trivia ads, as Amazon calls them.
Amazon said that advertisers could buy these new displays to be shown "across the vast majority of content on Prime Video, wherever it's streamed." All the new ad formats allow a viewer to place advertised products in their Amazon cart. With carousel ads, subscribers will be pushed to shop "a sliding lineup of" products during ad breaks during shows and movies, Amazon said, adding: "The ad automatically pauses so that customers can browse, and automatically resumes play when ad interaction has stopped."
Amazon said that advertisers could buy these new displays to be shown "across the vast majority of content on Prime Video, wherever it's streamed." All the new ad formats allow a viewer to place advertised products in their Amazon cart. With carousel ads, subscribers will be pushed to shop "a sliding lineup of" products during ad breaks during shows and movies, Amazon said, adding: "The ad automatically pauses so that customers can browse, and automatically resumes play when ad interaction has stopped."
How much blood... (Score:5, Funny)
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They're kind of in a sad state. I don't watch any of the video content anyway. Maybe they should finally separate out their video subscription from their shipping membership. They use membership as a required springboard to even be allowed to buy their add-on music/video/book subscriptions.
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Amazon Prime is fine for the fast shipping ... when Amazon actually has the product in their warehouses.
If Amazon had a Prime tier just for their shipping/return service I might be interested in keeping my Prime sub just for that. F**K the Kindle & Video CRAP.
Sometimes Amazon has stuff on Prime Shipping that comes from 3rd party sellers and that stuff takes longer to arrive ... and then you find out it's actually overhyped CRAP being dumped by a low-class back alley online seller.
I have found most stuff
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I Find that it's a toss up if prime shipping is faster than free shipping. My last order qualified for free shipping and would arrive the same day as prime.
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An annoying an shady option is the non-prime shipping. During checkout I can get a one time 2 day shipping for $6.99, which is the default, not the free shipping I qualified for... and when changing the shipping to the free option, the checkout
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The black bars on the top and bottom of the screen?
Can squeeze ads in there.
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Not all people in the family will leave the couch (Score:5, Insightful)
at the same time...
Maybe you will pause to let the ofspring go to the bathroom, your partner will go get more snacks... but you and your other ofspring may stay and see an ad or two...
Ca$hing!
On the other hand, people will be reeeeeeeallly pissed when they pause to see a detail in the sceene (say, an easter egg) and an ad pops up preventing you to see said detail....
Amazon will have to implement this really-really well, or else.
Re:Not all people in the family will leave the cou (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other hand, people will be reeeeeeeallly pissed when they pause to see a detail in the sceen (say, an easter egg) and an ad pops up preventing you to see said detail....
Amazon will have to implement this really-really well, or else.
Exactly this. I was watching Fallout on Prime last night and more than once paused to take a closer look at something.
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On the other hand, people will be reeeeeeeallly pissed when they pause to see a detail in the sceen (say, an easter egg) and an ad pops up preventing you to see said detail....
Amazon will have to implement this really-really well, or else.
Exactly this. I was watching Fallout on Prime last night and more than once paused to take a closer look at something.
I've watched the entire fallout series and saw exactly 0 ads. Thanks Ublock Origin.
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On the other hand, people will be reeeeeeeallly pissed when they pause to see a detail in the sceen (say, an easter egg) and an ad pops up preventing you to see said detail....
Amazon will have to implement this really-really well, or else.
Exactly this. I was watching Fallout on Prime last night and more than once paused to take a closer look at something.
I've watched the entire fallout series and saw exactly 0 ads. Thanks Ublock Origin.
Same. Thanks PiHole.
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I was a Amazon Prime subscriber for 8 years, I cancelled my subscription in April due to the near 40% increase in annual costs, glad I did by the looks of it, was already getting tired of the self promotional garbage every time you hit play on a show
Proof that there is inadequate competition (Score:5, Interesting)
Amazon's apparent ability to massively degrade the quality of a paid subscription without subscribers revolting and leaving is prima facie proof that the streaming market — and Amazon in particular — has negligible competition, and is in desperate need of FTC intervention of the trust-busting variety. Just saying.
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The fact that they've added the other ads months ago and I still haven't seen one tells me that their video service just isn't worth watching.
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The fact that they've added the other ads months ago and I still haven't seen one tells me that their video service just isn't worth watching.
They added ads months ago, and I immediately cancelled everything and shifted ~$35k/year of miscellaneous business ordering away to other places. No more Prime.
Oh, and Amazon has that bullshit agreement with sellers that the Amazon price will be the lowest...sellers can't have lower prices elsewhere on the internet...but if you pick up a phone and call them (especially to place a bulk order), most of them offer lower prices.
Amazon enshittifying Prime was good for my business purchases because now I'm s
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What constitutes massive degradation, and how would you measure subscribers revolting? I'm listed as a prime video member because I'm a prime delivery subscriber. That will remain unaffected no matter what I think of the ads. I would think that the Amazon Prime subscribers are, in fact, the least tethered to the platform of any of the "real" majors. If it didn't come free with delivery, I'll bet the base would dwindle to irrelevancy.
I don't know how you can conclude there isn't competition. Most US househol
Re:Proof that there is inadequate competition (Score:5, Funny)
how would you measure subscribers revolting?
I was a revolting subscriber... then they hit me with an ad, and I'm now a revolting ex-subscriber.
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"enshittify" - Verb - To gradually degrade the quality of something. ex. "The word 'enshittification' serves to enshittify the English language."
Re:Proof that there is inadequate competition (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Proof that there is inadequate competition (Score:3)
It's the bundling that prevents customers from leaving. We could easily do without the Prime video, but life on an isolated hill is more difficult without prime shipping.
If they unbundled the two, we would drop the video.
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For me, it is not the problem.
Paying $3 for an ad-free experience is not much, in fact, they could have just raised the price by $3, keep it ad-free, and it wouldn't have been a problem from a fair trade perspective. There is competition in the video streaming industry, a bit too much to my liking actually, and the big one is still Netflix, not Amazon.
The real problem is why is a "free shipping" subscription (that's what Prime is for most people) tied to a streaming service? Tying may or may not be illegal.
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The real problem is why is a "free shipping" subscription (that's what Prime is for most people) tied to a streaming service? Tying may or may not be illegal. Essentially, they are forcing you to buy their video subscription service if you want to have their delivery service. On the other hand, you don't need Amazon Prime at all, you can just pay for extra shipping when you need it (which may be the cheaper way), that's why I don't think you can make a case.
It's unclear, but they are using their extreme market power in one market to gain power in another market, which is definitely pushing against the bounds of being an antitrust concern.
And that decision to add $3 for ad-free streaming is actually a step in the right direction (as opposed to a flat fee increase). At least, those who don't care about Prime Video won't have to pay extra.
I'm not sure it is a clear step in the right direction. Yes, the fact that they're shifting at least some portion of the price increase onto people who actually use the Prime Video service could be considered an improvement, but as long as you can't get shipping without getting the "free but not free" tier (if it were really
Because everyone knows ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Because everyone knows ... (Score:5, Interesting)
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I think the technical term is upscaling.
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/slap Anne Thwacks
Amazon slaps Anne Thwacks around a bit with a large trout ;)
Note to self: (Score:4, Insightful)
cancel Amazon Prime.
Re:Note to self: (Score:4, Informative)
Or if you really do not want to do that — use Cookie Autodelete [github.com] to remove Amazon prime cookies once you are done. Yes: you will need to login when you want to use Prime Video but your browser will remember the password so it is not hard.
Not everyone pauses to pee (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, we all pause to pee, but that's not the only reason to pause. Maybe I want to see that weird thing in the background. Or have a really good look at a car on-screen.
Prime doesn't care, the people that cancel over this will be barely measurable at all.
I personally DGAF because i nuked the Prime Video app from all my devices when they started asking for more $ for ad-less. I barely watched Prime at all, so.. no loss at all.
But for the sake of those who still use it, I hope they make this user-selectable.
One more reason I love physical media over digital distribution.
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What's next??? (Score:1)
Ads in our dreams [youtube.com]?
Pause and Mute (Score:1)
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Use Brave (Score:2)
Use Brave or some other non-Google controlled browser. It's only an amount of time before they start blocking ad-blockers. The enshittification continues...
It's voluntary (Score:2)
It's voluntary. Yes, it's crap and Amazon are grifters and they will grind the value of your subscription into the dirt while, correctly, thinking that most people will just suck it up and click next or "I agree" or whatever. But it is voluntary. They have possibly the worst streaming content of all the giants. Nobody is forcing to watch inane shit. Also you can get Clarkson's Farm on bittorrent same day, so fuck amazon twice.
Yarr (Score:5, Funny)
I'm pretty sure the pirated copy of the episodes can be paused at your leisure without switching to ads.
Meh. (Score:2)
Since Amazon cancelled both The Expanse and The Grand Tour, is there even anything on Prime worth watching?
Does advertising to hostile viewers work? (Score:2)
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I think what they've done is try to split their product to appeal to different customer bases distinguished by how much they are willing to spend and trade-off that willingness to spend with tolerance for ads.
Not sure how well this will work though. As you mention, the streaming customer base may not wish to tolerate ads, whereas people willing to pay for content with ads (i.e., cable) may be willing to do this for the content offered by cable that is not offered by streaming.
Oopsie!
Complain to the advertisers. (Score:1)
If they start getting 1000s of emails telling them their commercial on Prime video pissed someone off it will stop.
next: ads on power off (Score:1)
it works (Score:2)
Amazon prime ads work. They succeeded in me not using up any of Amazon Prime's bandwidth.