Pet hate - paying to watch adverts + content

Apologies - this turned into a rant, but I really want the law changing.


A pet hate of mine is companies who sell TV subscription services and show advertising. I have no problem with self promotion (like the BBC does), or with the subscription model provided there are no adverts. I have no problem with adverts, if the service is free to use. I have no problem with a nominal fee for companies like Sky who provide the box and EPG etc.

I do have problems with Netflix, Amazon and whoever else who make you effectively pay twice (adverts plus subscription).

I honestly think it should be illegal to do both. This rant came about because I just had an email from Amazon. To be honest, it might be spam, but it's irrelevant whether it is or not. It's wrong and we just stand for it, like we do football ticket prices.

Sorry, I needed to get that off my chest.

--




Dear Prime member,


We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting February 5, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements. This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time. We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than ad-supported TV channels and other streaming TV providers. No action is required from you, and there is no change to the current price of your Prime membership. We will also offer a new ad-free option for an additional £2.99 per month* that you can sign up for here.


Also see
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/26/amazon-quarter-profits-revenue-increase

"Revenue at the company rose 13% to $143.1bn in the three months to 30 September, clearing expectations on Wall Street. Profits surged to $9.9bn, from $2.9bn a year ago."

 

I've had the same email, it's not spam.
I saw a report a bit back that they were bringing it in. Once one of these bandits does it they all jump on the bandwagon and do the same, I agree with you it's a rip off.

 

I completely agree with you. I hate this type of approach and whilst I can watch all prime things on my dodgy box, to charge an extra fee for advert free is scandalous .

 

At the start of programme it doesn't bother me, and usually you can press skip.

 

Whilst I agree with you about the adverts and how we are suddenly expected to pay for 5-6 streaming services to watch all the TV we might want to, Amazon revenue is mostly from AWS and it is entirely possibly that the Amazon TV part of the business is struggling/making a loss. So it might be a choice between customers paying more, watching adverts or losing the service entirely.

 

The 5 or 6 streaming services is also a joke, but I will save that particular rant for another day.

I appreciate what you're saying with regard to none profitable side of the business, but don't all good businesses use the profitable bits to help the less profitable?

 

I am, but me alone cancelling will not make one jot of difference.

 

Just a back door way of upping the monthly fee by £2.99

 

Agreed, doesn't make it right etc etc but again agree they'd want at least double the subscription fee without the adverisers.
Way of the world I'm afraid companies need to turn over significant profit and the industry has been hampered with Covid then strikes, they most films for 2024 won't now be released until 2025 due to strikes...expect prices to increase further and those pesky ads to become more frequent.

 

Saucy.

 

This is why pirating popular content is morally acceptable.

 

Is this a joke? It funds organised crime. I'd say it's socially acceptable but not morally.

 

They do indeed, and in doing so have all sorts of tax dodges.

It is 5hit3 what Amazon are doing. No other reason than sheer greed.

 

I love Spurs but I wasn't paying on top to watch Amazon Prime. They should have branched out to one off ppv. I'd have begrudgingly paid that. As it happens they lost to both West Ham and Brighton so it was worth sucking my thumb and having a moan.

 

I'm a Prime subscriber. I mainly pay it for the free next day delivery that you get with it, we order quite a bit from there. I actually think it's great value for money, but it pi55e5 me off that they are basically blackmailing subscribers to pay £3 or suffer adverts. For a company that makes the huge profit they do I'm far from impressed.

 

I use them for George's Birthday and Christmas so it wouldn't pay for me.

 

Principle though and thin end of wedge for me. More corporate greed from one of the wealthiest companies on the planet. It'll be a monthly charge of a quid to use firesticks soon

 

Way of the world I'm afraid, days of morality long gone when bumber profits need making and shareholders need their chunk.
Remember there's no such thing as enough is enough when money is involved.

 

Back in the day maybe when people were selling dodgy DVDs. Not these days though when anybody can download whatever they want for free.