Amazon Prime Streaming with Commercials

[djsander]

I had read about this earlier this year, but got the official email today. Starting January 29th, Movies and TV shows streamed on Amazon prime will include commercials. To avoid the commercials I can pay $2.99/month. Your start date maybe different. We will be watching commercials, although we already do that on Hulu and Disney+ as well Freevee and a few of the free services so it’s not a big deal.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I had read about this earlier this year, but got the official email today. Starting January 29th, Movies and TV shows streamed on Amazon prime will include commercials. To avoid the commercials I can pay $2.99/month. Your start date maybe different. We will be watching commercials, although we already do that on Hulu and Disney+ as well Freevee and a few of the free services so it’s not a big deal.

I got the same email. Actually, it is a big deal because we are already paying for Prime Video. Part of the attraction was no ads. We'll see how many commercials they run, but really, any commercial during the middle of a movie is unwelcome. By having ads in their content they are just like most other streaming channels.

 

[MichaelB]

Prime Video cannot be cancelled, only Prime can be cancelled, so Amazon is exploiting this. In my case they don’t have enough programming to justify paying an additional $3.00. It may lead to people binging Prime Video content and paying the extra cost for one month.

The era of great streaming options with lots of ad-free content and a low price are coming to an end.

 

[euro]

The era of great streaming options with lots of ad-free content and a low price are coming to an end.

Agreed. At some point, the piper has to be paid.....

As far as Prime Video, I will definitely NOT be paying additional fees, nor will I watch any ads.

 

[djsander]

I got the same email. Actually, it is a big deal because we are already paying for Prime Video. Part of the attraction was no ads. We'll see how many commercials they run, but really, any commercial during the middle of a movie is unwelcome. By having ads in their content they are just like most other streaming channels.

True what you say. I think originally you signed up for prime to get the free and fast shipping and a few other things and the streaming was a bonus. Now it appears the streaming is what you want and the other things are marginal at best. I felt like you did with the Disney legacy bundle that we had Disney plus with no ads for pretty reasonable and hulu with no ads. It was cheap, now you have to pay $20/month for hulu and Disney with ads. The days of inexpensive ad free streaming are over. Now prime is about 11.50/month (we pay by year) and add $3/month so will be over $15/month with tax added in. It’s never ending and the prices are only going one direction. About the only way to not get ads now is either pay a higher price or rent/buy the movie.

 

[GenXguy]

Glad I don't have Prime. There's no value if it's just another service with ads. There's too much free stuff out there if I'm going to have to watch ads.

 

[audreyh1]

Prime Video cannot be cancelled, only Prime can be cancelled, so Amazon is exploiting this. In my case they don’t have enough programming to justify paying an additional $3.00. It may lead to people binging Prime Video content and paying the extra cost for one month.

The era of great streaming options with lots of ad-free content and a low price are coming to an end.

Yeah, I don’t watch much Prime Video.

 

[Ian S]

I have Britbox through Prime. Is it now going to have commercials too?

 

[W2R]

Goodness. These greedy Amazon execs are probably dancing the Happy Dance because they thought of a way to extract more money from their customers while only providing the same services. That's so low.

I'm glad that I get Prime almost entirely for the shipping benefits. The only thing we have watched on Prime during the past year, was Reacher (Season One a year ago and Season Two now).

I have to admit that if I was paying for prime mainly for video streaming, I'd be steamed!

Charging for commercial free video this late in the game, seems so underhanded to me. Oh well, not my problem I suppose.

 

[MichaelB]

I have Britbox through Prime. Is it now going to have commercials too?

It’s still BritBox, so no, Amazon can’t add ads by themselves. You could sign ip directly with BritBox.

 

[marko]

I have Prime. I'm guessing it's about $125 a year (?). We have it for the free delivery as we get 2 or 3 packages delivered into our garage every single day of the year, so for us it's a great bargain. We may also be getting some shipping time priority but I can't be sure.

If I have to pay $3 to watch something every once in a while, so be it. I still think it's a good deal. Between price, selection and ease of returns, I wish the whole world worked as well as Amazon.

I buy so much through Amazon, Jeff owes me a ride on his boat.

 

[disneysteve]

We watch stuff on Prime. It already has commercials so I’m not clear on what is changing.

 

[CRLLS]

I always had thought of Prime Video as free with Prime. We still get enough value from Prime, even though the original Prime has suffered at the hand of the bean counters too.

 

[djsander]

We watch stuff on Prime. It already has commercials so I’m not clear on what is changing.

Shows streaming directly on prime were previously commercial free. Freevee which is a prime service has commercials. Also the free streaming services such as Tubi have commercials. Are you using a fire stick or fire cube to stream another streaming service and it’s that service that has commercials. It gets a little confusing.

 

[Jerry1]

I use Prime for the free shipping and the unlimited photo storage. To be able to have DW’s pictures backed up off site is worth the fee for Prime. I don’t remember the last thing I watched on Prime Video but it was probably some Thursday Night Football.

 

[Sojourner]

As far as Prime Video, I will definitely NOT be paying additional fees, nor will I watch any ads.

+1

After hearing the "Prime Video with commercials" news, DW and I had a discussion about whether Prime (as a whole) is worth $140/year to us. The answer was no, it's not. We rarely watch stuff on PV, and with the advent of commercials, it will become essentially worthless to us. At that point, Prime becomes a $140/year 2-day shipping service, which is of marginal value given how infrequently we actually need (or care about) 2-day shipping.

 

[MichaelB]

I use Prime for the free shipping and the unlimited photo storage. To be able to have DW’s pictures backed up off site is worth the fee for Prime. I don’t remember the last thing I watched on Prime Video but it was probably some Thursday Night Football.

Live sports programming is very expensive, and mostly still owned by cable. Both Amazon and YouTube are trying to get in that market as well. This new charge by Amazon surely is to help finance that effort.

 

[Exchme]

Goodness. These greedy Amazon execs are probably dancing the Happy Dance because they thought of a way to extract more money from their customers while only providing the same services. That's so low.

I'm glad that I get Prime almost entirely for the shipping benefits. The only thing we have watched on Prime during the past year, was Reacher (Season One a year ago and Season Two now).

I have to admit that if I was paying for prime mainly for video streaming, I'd be steamed!

Charging for commercial free video this late in the game, seems so underhanded to me. Oh well, not my problem I suppose.

Yes, Reacher is the only programming they have that is good, hopefully we can get this season done before the new fee starts. The other movies and shows are "B" or worse. When I only even go to their site once in a while, why would I pay for crappy movies and shows?

 

[folivier]

But don't know yet if the ads will be before a show starts or during the show. If before it may be ok for us. If during? Probably won't pay the extra fee or possibly cancel our Prime membership.

 

[Walt34]

As far as Prime Video, I will definitely NOT be paying additional fees, nor will I watch any ads.

+1.

I don't watch ads if I'm the one paying and in this case I'm paying. We'll see if the ad blocker works on Amazon as well as it does on youtube. But no great loss to me since I don't watch all that much on Amazon anyway. If the ads show, I'll watch even less. But this may even be the tipping point for me to drop Prime entirely as the sheer greed of it is disgusting.

 

[disneysteve]

Shows streaming directly on prime were previously commercial free. Freevee which is a prime service has commercials. Also the free streaming services such as Tubi have commercials. Are you using a fire stick or fire cube to stream another streaming service and it’s that service that has commercials. It gets a little confusing.

We’re currently watching X Files which is Freevee. I’m 99% sure that Mrs. Maisel had commercials. That was a Prime series.

Obviously commercials don’t bother me. Like someone else said, we pay for Prime for shipping. Video is just a side benefit.

 

[Mark1]

I use Prime for the free shipping and the unlimited photo storage. To be able to have DW’s pictures backed up off site is worth the fee for Prime. I don’t remember the last thing I watched on Prime Video but it was probably some Thursday Night Football.

Besides free shipping, TNF is the only other service that I use from my Prime account. Therefore, I placed a note in my call file to cancel my Prime account at my next renewal in July, as I think I can come out way ahead paying for shipping periodically. I never get 2 day shipping anymore and now that many late season NFL games seem to have went to NFL network, etc. I've discovered that I can easily get by missing the pay-per-view games. In fact the last 2 Broncos games were not available in Grand Junction, except pay-per-view channels.

Besides next fall I suspect that Amazon won't allow me to "tape-delay" watching the TNF game and zoom through the commercials.

 

[FIYes]

I’m a little annoyed by this. Since I pay for Prime annually and my year is up in August, I feel like I’m not getting what I paid for. If this occurred when my Prime membership was up for renewal it would not be so annoying.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

I’m a little annoyed by this. Since I pay for Prime annually and my year is up in August, I feel like I’m not getting what I paid for. If this occurred when my Prime membership was up for renewal it would not be so annoying.

You might be able to cancel and get a pro-rated refund. I was on monthly for the last n months (annual, then stopped, then restarted when I was doing a lot of house projects/buying). On the cancel page it offered to do it immediately or when the renewal was due. In the end, I decided to "pause" it on my next renewal (mid January).

I'm trying to declutter (I have a long way to go) and one way is to not get more clutter. I watch little on prime video (too busy) except I am watching the new season of Reacher and Upload. My plan is to watch what I can until mid-January, wait a month or two and then reup for a month to finish both series.

 

[Mark1]

On the cancel page it offered to do it immediately or when the renewal was due. In the end, I decided to "pause" it on my next renewal (mid January).

I'm trying to declutter (I have a long way to go) and one way is to not get more clutter. I watch little on prime video (too busy) except I am watching the new season of Reacher and Upload. My plan is to watch what I can until mid-January, wait a month or two and then reup for a month to finish both series.

I'm thinking of playing off your strategy.
So I can switch to monthly next summer at my renewal; then pause after a month; then potentially "unpause" during football season in the fall to watch TNF and get free shipping, etc.; then pause again after a couple of months. This way, if Amazon makes me watch commercials during TNF I can just pause or cancel permanently.