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Amazon To Run Ads on Prime Video in Key Markets Starting in 2024 (bloomberg.com) 120

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Amazon, following other streaming platforms looking to further monetize their content, will run ads on its Prime Video service in key markets -- a move that will help offset rising costs and provide a boost to an already robust advertising business. From a report: Ad-supported streaming will be the default on Prime Video in US, UK, Germany and Canada starting early next year, the company said in a statement on Friday. The company has long offered video streaming as part of a package that also includes speedy shipping, music and other perks. Amazon said Prime subsribers will continue to pay $139 annually in the US but will be able to pay an additional $2.99 a month to avoid ads. Pricing in other countries will be anounced later, the company said.
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Amazon To Run Ads on Prime Video in Key Markets Starting in 2024 More

Amazon To Run Ads on Prime Video in Key Markets Starting in 2024

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  • Surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dbialac ( 320955 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:08AM (#63868717)
    Seems like for some reason everyone except the extremely naive saw this coming.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by t0qer ( 230538 )

      LOL looking through the thread there's quite a bit of extremely naive. So like a lot of people we got prime for the shipping, video was just kind of a bonus. Wife and kids all have our RADARR and SONARR servers bookmarked on their phones. I'd say... 90% of the time when we're browsing AppleTV or Prime and we see something for rent, or with ads we just pop over to our RADARR or SONARR server and grab the same content, ad free, cost almost free (I do pay for a easynews and a nzb indexer) but hell, the pric

      • I have no doubt we'd get raked over the coals on shipping.

        Not usually. If you buy a lot, then it should be easy to group orders together such that they exceed 25 bucks. You get free shipping at that point, even if you don't have prime.

  • Because I can. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:10AM (#63868719) Homepage Journal

    The viewers will complain, but they will keep paying. And watching. Amazon knows this and is ready to cash in.

    Personally I would love to see a boycott over this, but I am not betting on it.

    • Re:Because I can. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by nucrash ( 549705 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:20AM (#63868765)

      After the last $140 bill for streaming, I am ready to cut the Amazon umbilical. I don't think I buy enough to justify shipping anymore.

      It was neat until they managed to get greedy and now I am no longer interested.

      • Do it! I cut mine in January when it was set to renew. After Amazon blew their two day shipping promise half the time between October and December last year, I decided $140 was way too much just to get "We're running a bit late" messages every time I ordered or getting jacked around with different estimated delivery dates as soon as I pushed the buy button. I have placed orders since then and received my orders in a week or less. Mostly the same as with Prime. What was I paying for again?

        $140 pays f
      • Went To far so canceled. Pity since have a Fire TV that worked well with the bundle, video, music. Shop less coz stuff got expensive and can go to stores now. Other sites offer delivery for mid value items. Picard and LOTR, few others appreciated content but most not interested so Amazon spent to much on filler content do not care for. Music was good but alternatives exist without the big tie in.

      • After the last $140 bill for streaming, I am ready to cut the Amazon umbilical. I don't think I buy enough to justify shipping anymore.

        Wow..when did they raise the price to $140?

        I joined when it was way less than $100.....

        I guess it is on auto-bill somewhere...I've not looked into what it costs in a long time.

        I didn't realize it was that much.

      • $140? How do you rack up a bill for $140 for streaming with Prime video? Unless you add a lot of extra channels and 'rent' a lot of movies. I pay $2.99/m and at the end of the month I still haven't seen everything I like, and sometimes add a channel a $4.99, which I stop when I've seen about everything I wanted to see.
      • Absolutely! After they screwed up Amazon Music I was ready to cut them off. Recently they screwed up some of my orders. I cancelled Prime a few weeks back.

    • Re:Because I can. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by SoonerPet ( 893902 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:29AM (#63868795)
      I just wish they would break Prime Video out from the normal Prime subscription. I don't give a shit about their video crap and don't want to pay for that massive money loser, I just signed up for Prime over a decade ago for the shipping and groceries etc.. Stop jacking up the normal Prime sub to subsidize your entertainment division.

    • If this comes to the US I will (Score:5, Interesting)

      by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:30AM (#63868805)

      If this comes to the US market I will absolutely cancel my Prime subscription. I'm already finding their streaming service almost useless now that they've gotten rid of the "Free to me" filter so now I'm forced to see ads for movies they want to sell me when all I want to do is browse the videos I've subscribed to with Prime. On top of that, I went over my purchases after they got rid of the "Free to me" filter and noticed that most of them would qualify for free shipping without Prime and I really dont care if they come in 2 or 5 days. Most of my "2 day" deliveries dont arrive in 2 days anymore anyways.

      The few shows they make that I watch can be pirated, screw this anit-consumerism nonsense.

      • Same here in Europe. I'm back to reading books. No, seriously.

      • If this comes to the US market I will absolutely cancel my Prime subscription. I'm already finding their streaming service almost useless now that they've gotten rid of the "Free to me" filter so now I'm forced to see ads for movies they want to sell me when all I want to do is browse the videos I've subscribed to with Prime. On top of that, I went over my purchases after they got rid of the "Free to me" filter and noticed that most of them would qualify for free shipping without Prime and I really dont car

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by skam240 ( 789197 )

          Can you? That's definitely weird because...

          https://www.amazonforum.com/s/... [amazonforum.com]

          I'm sorry the "Free to Me" option has been removed in the new Prime Video experience; that does sound like it could be frustrating!

          I also double checked just now in case they had brought it back and I still dont see the option. If it turns out I'm being clueless and they did bring it back then please tell me where in the UI it is though!

          On a side note, I really hate it when customer service people tell me how frustrating something must be like in the above link I posted. I just find it to be super patronizing.

      • Meh, I canceled a long time ago. Did you know that you don't need Prime to get free shipping? In any case, there are better places to buy stuff from.

    • Just added an event to calendar to remind me to cancel Amazon Prime before it renews. Been meaning to do this for a while, but you know, inertia.

    • there is absolutely nothing i want to watch badly enough to suffer through ads. So i'll just pirate the few shows i do want to watch, and i'll feel zero compunction in doing so. It's not like the ads would compel me to do anything but avoid the product/brand in question.

      Advertising is manipulative at best, tending towards insulting.

    • No, "they" won't. I'll leave prime over this.

    • The viewers will complain, but they will keep paying. And watching.

      Amazon has a someone unique position in that users do pay but not watch. I don't know of anyone who went out to get Prime Video. I only know people who have Prime for other reasons and there's a video service involuntarily attached to their account. Like ... we've literally not watched anything on Prime Video this year.

  • Fuck 'em and their DRM (Score:3)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:12AM (#63868729)

    I can't even view any of their streaming content. Trying to drag a browser window over to my tv results in the HDMI signal being disconnected. Works fine for Youtube and literally everything else.

    • I can't even view any of their streaming content. Trying to drag a browser window over to my tv results in the HDMI signal being disconnected. Works fine for Youtube and literally everything else.

      You have a computer hooked to your living room TV?

      Why not just use a streaming box like most people do..works great!!!

      • Because my computer has a much better app and video service selection that doesn't plaster ads everywhere as soon as it receives power. Only when I browse the web.
        As a bonus, couch gaming!
        What does a streaming box cost? I only paid $45 for my HDMI cable.

        • You paid $45 for a cable? Can you see any advatage to it over the cheaper ones?

          • 1. Its 30 foot.
            2. Its optical because of number 1
            3. It is the latest spec. I am getting all that 120fps when I play games.
            4. I have had the same PC since I was 8. I just keep upgrading it.
            5. Why use an ad filled box that is the same as the ad filled TV.

        • Because my computer has a much better app and video service selection that doesn't plaster ads everywhere as soon as it receives power. Only when I browse the web.

          I don't see ads on my Apple TV nor my FireTV cube on my TV when I start them up...?

          Hell, the only time I see ads are when I fire up YouTube or YouTube TV....

          • For Apple TV, I see a big one front and center.
            https://www.apple.com/newsroom... [apple.com]
            For the Fire TV, I have used them before so I know they are full of ads.
            https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp... [arstechnica.net]
            https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.... [futurecdn.net]
            Pics of some.

            Go fuck yourself and not know what an ads is.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by rworne ( 538610 )

              That picture of the Apple TV is not what you think it is.

              The top bar is a quick access location, and each icon you move over changes the background at the top of the screen to whatever is new or whatever you left off on that particular app. The AppleTV icon is not fixed there, you can move it off the bar if you wish - mine has Plex there.

              There's no advertising of Apple services anywhere on the AppleTV unless you open the AppleTV app where it then tells you everything that's available on the platform, from

        • What does a streaming box cost? The better question is whether is still possible to buy a device that doesn't qualify as a streaming box.

    • Trying to drag a browser window over to my tv results in the HDMI signal being disconnected.

      I don't have this problem, and yes I spend a lot of time travelling and watching Prime video with a laptop connected to all manner of hotel TVs. It sounds like something in your computer is broken. Does your video card not support HDCP or something?

      Also you said below your computer has a better app but are complaining here that it literally doesn't work. So which is it? Is it better, or completely non functional?

      Also also what streaming box gives you ads? Trick question, the answer is none. It's a non-compl

  • This is funny (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Savage-Rabbit ( 308260 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:13AM (#63868735)

    This is funny. Advertising used to be a tool to make people aware of your product which mutually benefitted both business and customer. Advertising has now become a torture instrument you can use to threaten your customers and extort more money out of them.

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @10:23AM (#63868937)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Zarhan ( 415465 )

        You arenâ(TM)t the customer. Youâ(TM)re the product. This was the most predictable outcome ever after Iger let slip on an earnings call that Disney+ makes more money from the cheaper to the consumer ad tier than the more expensive ad free one. Thereâ(TM)s too much money at stake with targeted ads. Amazon has incredibly detailed profiles of its users that nobody other than Google or Facebook can ever hope to match. The only part of this that shocks me is the fact that itâ(TM)s only $3/mo

        • Ok, I guess I have to believe that companies *do* believe that ads actually work and generate returns and they must have some hard data to prove that campaigns have been successful... I just don't get it.

          You're looking at it the wrong way. Modern advertising is about maintaining a set of expectations and a way of life without which the elites who run the place lose their power, status, and extreme comfort and insularity.

          For one thing, sales generated directly by specific ads or campaigns for a specific product or company are a bonus. They're just the icing on the cake. The cake itself is establishing and maintaining norms and expectations to buy Buy BUY! It's an ecosystem - a rising tide which lifts all (co

    • Worst of all is the quality of fucking ads nowadays. I must be in the minority as I ensure I don't buy from brands that use annoying ad techniques on the web or on TV, but obviously it must work as someone is buying the shit to pay for them.

  • Meh (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:17AM (#63868755)

    I don't care one way or another. Prime Video sucks - I've always gotten it for the shipping benefits but for actual prime video I wouldn't be willing to pay $1 per month for it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sirket ( 60694 )

      Same here. I've had Prime for 18 years- long before they began offering streaming. There is very little I actually watch on Prime video so if Amazon starts ads, I'll just go back to not watching it.

    • Funny, I pay $2.99, just for Prime Video (and our content here in the EU is even way smaller as in the US) and the free shipping is a bonus.

  • I hope the statisticians treat it as such.

    The only virtue is that popular shows will generate advertising revenue, making it more attractive to green light further series, when, too often, there's only a limited incentive to do if it's all in the package.

  • Arr matey (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Jeslijar ( 1412729 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:19AM (#63868763) Homepage

    Already setup an alert earlier this year to remind me to cancel amazon prime because the value of the service overall has greatly decreased over time.

    Can't wait to be free of their yoke. One less subscription!

    • It's a good feeling to be free of them. I left during the pandi when their shipping times went through the roof but they declined to refund my prime membership. I argued that they advertise 2-day shipping, if it takes 3+ days, I should get a refund of my Prime dues for that period. They replied that it's "2 day shipping once the item ships," that delays before the item ships don't count. Complete hogwash.

    • An alert is not necessary for amazon prime.
      If you cancel now, you still get to keep your benefits until they expire.
      Also, Amazon is one of the few companies that actually gives you the option to get a prorated refund if you cancel.

    • Wait... you paid for Prime because of their video service?

  • Enough Advertising Already. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:38AM (#63868835)

    I feel like advertising has taken over huge chunks of our lives for no real benefit to anyone except the ad companies. Yeah, I know, profit is all, and to hell with everything else, but seriously? I went to the bank and used the ATM yesterday to deposit some money. That used to take a minute to two minutes, tops. Now it takes almost ten minutes because between each action screen there's at least one ad, sometimes two, while a big, bright, friendly, "Please wait a moment" flashes in the corner. Why? What good does that do anybody? It certainly didn't make the people waiting behind me any happier.

    I can not wrap my head around subscriptions (I'm already paying you!) that use the service you paid for in order to force-feed you advertising. That said, I would guess that once Prime "proves" it works, WB won't be far behind with shoving ads into HBO/HBOMax/Max/Whatever it'll be called then. Sigh. Greed is why we can't have nice things.

    • Advertisers are willing to pay to put ads in front of you. They believe this motivates your behavior in a favorable way. Some interesting research came out not too long ago showing that most internet advertising has no impact at all, but advertisers keep at it just in case. So, that's why we have to endure this perpetual assault against our attention.

      Every singe provider of subscription services would like to make more profit off their services. Why wouldn't they? Showing you ads is a secondary profit

      • "They believe this motivates your behavior in a favorable way." - they believe wrong. I go out of my way to avoid any product ad that gets pushed in front of me. I avoid ALL advertising and have since the late 90's. So sick of the shit.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • I went to the bank and used the ATM yesterday to deposit some money. That used to take a minute to two minutes, tops. Now it takes almost ten minutes because between each action screen there's at least one ad, sometimes two

        I would fire my bank if they pulled this crap and tell them exactly why. The banking sector is one of the few left with genuine competition. Don’t put up with that shit. There are over 4,000 banks and nearly 5,000 credit unions in the US.

        I think I'd have to go credit union. Every bank I've seen friends access has this same "ads between screens" on their ATMs now in this area. The Credit Unions don't do this. Yet.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by _xeno_ ( 155264 )

      I feel like advertising has taken over huge chunks of our lives for no real benefit to anyone except the ad companies.

      I suspect you're right, and it's important to realize that includes the people paying for the ads. The advertising market is severely messed up right now. Video ads cost the most, but it's not clear they're the most effective. The companies that sell ads charge more to be more obnoxious to the people forced to see the ads, on the theory that this somehow improves effectiveness. But there's no proof.

      The ad market is driven by metrics, but there's nothing indicating the metrics mean everything. What exactly i

    • You can't wrap your head around cable television? Wow. That might be a failure of imagination.

    • Thankfully, I haven't experience this on any ATM...yet. Unfortunately, I HAVE run across gas station pumps that blast out their ads as soon as I start filling up. I try to avoid those, but when it happens, I cover the speaker with my hands to muffle the noise. As with any arms race, the advertisers defeated this by putting the speaker INSIDE the pump. I put in a bucks worth and move on.

      Makes me want to get an EV.

  • Prime Video has been running ads for many years. I don't understand why everyone is reacting as if this were a change.
    Among many others, a typical show will have three repeats of the same Liberty Mutual Insurance commercial.
    Am I the only one who watches Prime Video?

  • Streaming is the new cable (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @09:59AM (#63868881)

    Remember when people paid for cable TV to escape the blight of advertisement on regular TV?

    Of course you don't. That was decades ago. Because after a while, the cable operators started introducing "a little" advertisement to offset the rising cost of this or that. And then more. And then more. And then cable was mostly ads interspersed with a few minutes of programming here and there.

    Streaming is going down the same path. What a fucking surprise...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Megane ( 129182 )

      I don't remember, because I remember when cable TV was just a way to escape the blight of an antenna that couldn't get all three networks plus PBS.

      Even in the early 80s when my family got "modern" cable TV, it was only the pay movie channels that had no ads, and they still ran announcements for upcoming crap on their own channel. I don't know where you are, but least in most of the US, it was never an ad-free experience, even before "insert ads" by the cable operators. (Insert ads only replace low-value ne

    • Re:Streaming is the new cable (Score:4, Insightful)

      by CohibaVancouver ( 864662 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @10:44AM (#63869009)

      Remember when people paid for cable TV to escape the blight of advertisement on regular TV?

      Nope, I don't remember that.

      I *do* remember when people first bought cable TV so they could get channels clearly that they couldn't pick up with their rabbit ears or the antenna on the roof, and/or channels that they couldn't get at all, like TBS.

      Those channels all had ads (with the exception of the "this program supported by" ads on PBS.)

      People who wanted ad-free bought premium channels like HBO and Cinemax. Those modern versions are still ad-free.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rworne ( 538610 )

        I do.

        I also remember when a big dish and a receiver could get you tons of free (and ad-free) programming from satellites.
        The problem is whenever something gets a big enough audience, someone wants to monetize it or shut it down.

        So suddenly satellite channels went dark as they went encrypted. Cable channels started filling with ads.

        Those legit streaming services are now starting to get as annoying with ads as those sketchy streaming services now. AppleTV is a blessing, but YouTube is total shit on it with

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zarhan ( 415465 )

      Streaming is going down the same path. What a fucking surprise...

      There's one thing opposing that - piracy.

      No need even for torrent clients anymore. If services like https://m.wcostream.org/ [wcostream.org] pop up, at some point folks getting annoyed with ads just start paying for a VPN instead and get their fix this way.

    • Re:Streaming is the new cable (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Chelloveck ( 14643 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @11:23AM (#63869137)

      Remember when people paid for cable TV to escape the blight of advertisement on regular TV?

      No, because that never happened. I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I don't know anyone who got cable to be free of advertising. The reason was always to have more than three channels to choose from. There was never a promise of zero advertising anyway. Those three broadcast channels had just as much advertising on cable as they did on an antenna. The only channels that were ever promoted as ad-free were the premium services like HBO which you had to pay extra for. Okay, I guess some people did get cable specifically so they could subscribe to the premium ad-free channels. But basic cable was never ad free, was never promised to be ad free, and was never expected to be ad free.

      I am rather bemused though that the big problem with streaming is exactly what we thought we wanted -- the ability to unbundle services and pay a la carte for just what we wanted to watch. Well, we got that. Turns out it's not so great after all. Now what I really want is a streaming aggregator, a one-stop site that will let me view anything available from any service. Kind of like what we had with cable before streaming became a thing.

  • I despise ads. I don't mind paying, but I despise ads

  • Monopoly breakup... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Vrallis ( 33290 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @10:21AM (#63868933) Homepage

    There is only one thing I want to see out of some sort of monopoly breakup against Amazon: I want prime for shipping and not waste money on prime video (or other 'benefits'). The shipping is why I went Prime ages ago, and it's all I give a shit about.

    • I'm with you. I live in the middle of nowhere, and Prime means I can easily get specialty items that aren't sold within 100 miles of here. But Prime Video? I wouldn't pay an extra penny for it. It's just not something I use.

      I kind of wonder, which is the driver for most people? Prime Shipping, or Prime Video? Or some other Prime service that I never think of?

      • You don't need prime for anything except 'faster' shipping, if you don't mind waiting (a week) extra those same items will still come and you save $139 annually - didn't it start out at $79? Inflation indeed.
        • Speed isn't the defining factor to me. It's that I can order an item without worrying that shipping is going to be a large percentage of the total cost. I can order a single inexpensive item without having wait until I have a large enough order to get the free shipping. Prime, to me, is pre-paid shipping, and I'd likely spend more than $139/year if I paid individual shipping on every item.

  • Or at least I was appalled... until I remembered that the last thing I watched on Prime was "Outer Range"...

  • Lyrics... (Score:3)

    by ElizabethGreene ( 1185405 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @10:31AM (#63868969)

    Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
    Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
    Drink and the devil be done for the rest
    Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

    The mate was fixed by the bos'n's pike
    The bos'n' brained with a markin spike
    And Cookey's throat was marked belike
    It had been gripped by fingers ten
    And there they lay all good dead men
    Like break o' day in a boozing ken
    Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum ...

  • Not in my house. The second they inject ads, I'm out. I don't care if they reproduce the full works of Tolkien better than 20 PJs. Really how much more money do you need Amazon?

  • Sell your Amazon stock, write a letter to the company, post on their Twitter, FUCK THEM for doing this.

  • Prime video is subprime. The only worthwhile offerings are some halfway decent B movies, if you can find them. Yeah, once in a while they actually produce something good, like Fleabag, but that is very rare. Netflix is also shit, but it doesn't stink as bad.

    • The Expanse is a must-watch.

      • Absolutely 100% agree. I actually purchased the episodes on Prime as they came out on SyFy back in the day because I didn't have a cable subscription. This will continue to be what Amazon Video excels at.

        I think the Prime originals that are worth watching are few and far between so why subscribe except infrequently?

  • In other words (Score:3)

    by angularbanjo ( 1521611 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @11:42AM (#63869207)
    The Rings of Power was such an enormous waste of money that customers must now make up for the Khazad-Dum-sized hole in the Prime production budget?
  • Yeah, I also don't like ads, but if they are in front/after, short and are skippable (highy doubt that), I fon't mind as much. BUT if it's during/over the movie I stop immediately, as THAT's the main reason I don't watch cable.

  • Freevee was a service that amazon got when they bought IMDB. After a few name changes and a few tweaks, last I checked, most (if not all) of the content of Prime video (sans ads) was available in Freevee (with ads)...

    So, I guess this is nothing more than integrating the previously separated brand into the main brans, and rolling it out to more markets...

    So, nothing new.

  • Netflix. So, ads or no ads, if you get hooked on an amazon series, chances are you will get some sort of resolution, and do not end on a cliffhanger, like "you know who"

  • I see ScAmazon wants to be next up on "who's a fucking greedy asshole?", Murika's favorite game show!
    Now where was that "cancel subscription" button?

  • There were ads all over TNF with no option to disable them.
    I doubt this $3 charge will change that.
  • I had no idea another paid video streaming service would go the way of every other streaming service including cable- Youtube, Hulu, Vudu, Paramount Plus, Disney Plus, Crackle,etc...unfathomable

  • Classic marketing trick (Score:5, Informative)

    by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @04:18PM (#63870241) Homepage
    Marketing trick, quote the existing cost in years and the increase in months, making it look 1/12th the size it really is. Basically it is a 25.8% increase to retain the same service.

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