Amazon will increase ad-free Prime Video prices by $2 per month on April 10
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
That announcement will be the service equivalent to shrinkflation. You'll pay the same amount you do now for the "all inclusive" service, but music and video streaming will be moved to an add-on. Or at best, they'll be included with an effectively unwatchable/unlistenable amount of ads. There's no doubt some creator-attraction value in maintaining a high number of subscribers regardless of whether they actively utilize video and music streaming.
I gave up on Fallout once I saw that it couldn't be watched without ads. I've abandoned watching a lot of media I'm interested in precisely because there is no way to access it without either ads or an absurd price premium. Ongoing series are one thing, but with movies, the video rental days were simply superior (at least for those of us who had a store within a few minutes travel).
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The problem with the sentiment that a few informed people (like those here) will cancel Prime is that this isn't a purely Prime movement (to ads, prices up, etc.) it's that nearly every popular streaming service seems to be doing this (Apple an exception). It was a race for market share first, then once you lock in a user base you lower quality, raise the price, and bring in the BS ads.
It will take much more than a hand full of users cancelling to stop this trend - we need organized pressure against this predatory behavior.
It will take much more than a hand full of users cancelling to stop this trend - we need organized pressure against this predatory behavior.
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Been ad-free since it was offered. Recently some shows start with a skipable preview of other shows available on Prime. So not just a price increase, but a "redefinition" of what an ad is, and forcing ad free customers to start with a preview-for-another-show cause that is evidently not an ad. E-word. HTH, NSC
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I just tested and got an ad free steam that should've been infested with then. whatever they're doing, ad blockers are currently working against it.
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I think at this point, in 2026, it's weird for streaming services to keep treating 4k streams as market segmentation - because, 4k TVs are not expensive. Heck, I got a black friday special about 9 or 10 years ago now, a 50 inch 4k Philips TV for only $300.
4k is pretty much the standard for even cheap TVs and has been for years, but they want to charge people premiums for 4k content as if only rich people have 4k tvs.
4k is pretty much the standard for even cheap TVs and has been for years, but they want to charge people premiums for 4k content as if only rich people have 4k tvs.
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Max, Ultra... I can propose other adverbs if you need to create new tiers: Mega, Magna, Extra, Super, Hyper...
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idk if it's regional variance (I'm in Canada) or they've changed how it works, but when I tried it the "included" music service was the shitty compromised version only a step above radio that anyone else would be giving away free with ads. I think it's more thrown in as supposed perk to bait subscribers rather than something that really adds cost.
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jonbob_newcastle
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Now they’re playing ads during films that I’ve actually bought from the prime store. Enshittification, thy name is Bezos.
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That's good to hear. I run a PiHole which used to work for Youtube ads but recently stopped since they're using the same servers for ad injection. Hopefully Amazon doesn't "fix" that.
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I canceled prime over a year ago when Bezos showed up on the podium.
you don’t need an internal slideshow with the roadmap to know that Amazon has gained out exactly how to extract the most value from every part of their delivery chain and customers. In rural areas, they’ve destroyed our Postal Service delivery quality. Amazon pay pays below cost to the post office to have things put in mailboxes, but there aren’t enough mailboxes and there’s no money to buy more.
I’m completely done with that company and their consumer hostile face.
you don’t need an internal slideshow with the roadmap to know that Amazon has gained out exactly how to extract the most value from every part of their delivery chain and customers. In rural areas, they’ve destroyed our Postal Service delivery quality. Amazon pay pays below cost to the post office to have things put in mailboxes, but there aren’t enough mailboxes and there’s no money to buy more.
I’m completely done with that company and their consumer hostile face.
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We so rarely go into Prime anymore, largely because of the utter shit organization of the selection screen. Everything’s seemingly just arbitrarily thrown together into arbitrary categories. There’s just no logic to any of it. And sneaking rental/subscription items in with the “included with Prime” things is bullshit.
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Surprised to see how many people in this thread are still using Amazon. I get that it's convenient but that seems a poor deal in exchange for funding the mass enshittification of the world.
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I use ublock origin on Firefox and run as much stuff through the browser as possible. it gets pretty much everything and the most maintenance I've had to do on it is force it to reload a cache a couple times.
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The Expanse is available as a box set purchase from Apple for $60 and can then be downloaded.
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Hang on a tick. That's two Prime Video Max subscriptions with the dice connected.Scharon Harding said:
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Adblockers must still be working because I forgot Amazon was pushing ads. The moment I see one, I'm done though. I'll be cancelling rather than paying more though.
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whats most annoying is this trend of paying for no ads but still getting ads. "but they're just ads for our own shows so they're not really ads" i guess is their thinking?
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I used to be a big sports fan. But with everything needing ever more expensive streaming packages, I have just stopped watching.
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I still have Amazon Prime, but stopped using it. Completely. Onstream works great on GoogleTV.
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Have you seen evidence that consumer choice can stop the mass enshittification of the world?
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Same here. While I have shitcanned the WaPo and kindle subscriptions, prime is still a thing, mostly because my family still uses it, and I still use it to ship supplies to my elderly dad, plus random small crap I can't find anywhere else.
But I have moved all of my big purchases elsewhere, and the amount of money AMZN I haven't given now runs into the $thousands.
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Given the incoherent, jump-though-hoops, price gouging mess streaming has become, why does anyone bother? As for advertising, I'd rather have a portable toilet reeking in my living room. (Seriously, who in their right mind tolerates advertising? I suddenly have this horrifying feeling there are large numbers of people who allow their kids to be exposed to it.)
Of course stealing is stealing, but somehow robbing one's dealer doesn't strike me as a particularly mortal sin. If the whole video crack industry collapses tomorrow, there are still several lifetimes of excellent books I haven't yet found time to read.
Of course stealing is stealing, but somehow robbing one's dealer doesn't strike me as a particularly mortal sin. If the whole video crack industry collapses tomorrow, there are still several lifetimes of excellent books I haven't yet found time to read.
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So when they last raised their price of Amazon Prime membership, didn't they use the excuse that they believe Prime now has more value?
So now when the "value" of Prime Video decreases by showing more ads than the industry standard, does that mean they'll lower the price of Amazon Prime membership?
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We used to get almost daily deliveries as well. Canceling Prime really really cut down on our Amazon spend. We still use Amazon but not nearly as much. Almost everything can be had elsewhere for the same or cheaper. If Amazon is the only option we'll still use it. Free shipping is still a thing if the order is $35 or more. It's March and I've bought one thing from them so far this year.
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Hmm, I checked with my Plex server admin, and according to him, the Fallout will continue to stream in 4k without Ads.... No idea how what works.... /s
It's almost like piracy is the right solution for otherwise inconvenience ...
It's almost like piracy is the right solution for otherwise inconvenience ...
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No, but being guilted for what are ultimately nothing but self service decisions made by my corrupt government keeps me entertained. Oh no! Did I put the wrong kind of plastic bag in recycling? Hard to say. The only thing I'm sure of is that while I'm thinking about it, ToxiCo® has churned out another ten trillion plastic containers whose only purpose is to turn the world's oceans into garbage pits and end all complex life on earth.
"Consumer choice" is an oxymoron. The function of marketing is to inflict the delusion of infinite options while providing no choice at all.
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Another super annoying aspect of these “without Ads” tiers is that it’s not completely true.
You do get ads at the start of many streams for content that you can watch on Prime Video.
Thankfully you can still skip those ads while on the ad-free tier, but it’s ridiculous that I have to experience these ads at all.
You do get ads at the start of many streams for content that you can watch on Prime Video.
Thankfully you can still skip those ads while on the ad-free tier, but it’s ridiculous that I have to experience these ads at all.
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No one should lose sleep over robbing their heroin dealer, and crimes against propaganda are by definition noble.
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If you're lucky, you're old enough to have a niece or nephews running a Plex server under their bed. You can then just contribute the occasional 24 TB HDD and ignore the rest.
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I'm occasionally exposed to popular music. There's nothing but enshittifcation songs.
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When will it be profitable? That is, after all, the only possible corporate concern. The rest is (quite literally) advertising.
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I told my family I was cancelling Prime and everyone figured out how to buy the same things cheaper from other places like I had. I do admit Amazon makes a great free product research tool for that.
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