Amazon Developing a Free, Ad-Supported Version of Prime Video

DooKey

DooKey

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Amazon is developing a free, ad-supported complement to its Prime streaming video service, according to people familiar with its plans. The company is talking with TV networks, movie studios and other media companies about providing programming to the service, they say. It seems to me this just goes against everything streamers want. Most people are cutting the cord because they are tired of all the commercials. Why would they want to use this service? I guess money talks and free is free, but I'm not sold on it.

For the ad-supported service, Amazon wants to dive into back catalogs of TV and movie studios, looking to beef up its children's programming, for example, one TV industry insider says. It is also going after lifestyle, travel, cooking and other shows that are a good fit for an e-commerce platform.
 
I have Prime - this doesn't bother me. I just wish more shows/movies would show up on this service (or Netflix for that matter) and STAY on the platform. :p If that helps with Prime? that works... i'm sure this might help encourage more folks actually get the paid service once they get the taste for it... :)
 
Way back in the day when people used VCR's, I would record everything I watched and watch it later so that I could fast forward through all the commercials.
Thursday was the day with the most shows that I watched, 3 hours of shows that I watched in 2 hours since I was able to fast forward through 1 hours of commercials.
 
I rarely use the Prime Video part of my subscription because I am very dissatisfied with Amazon mixing free and pay content all with the same service. You search for something and it shows up and then it says "Pay $2.99 To Watch This".....the fuck is this??? Shouldn't the pay stuff show up under normal Amazon browsing or under a different section?

I watch Man In The High Castle, and thats it. I'm sure because I have stated something, many of you will jump on me and correct me saying they fixed all that already, but that's the problem with messing up....customers don't come back.
 
Zepher said:
Way back in the day when people used VCR's, I would record everything I watched and watch it later so that I could fast forward through all the commercials.
Thursday was the day with the most shows that I watched, 3 hours of shows that I watched in 2 hours since I was able to fast forward through 1 hours of commercials.
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But the commercials during Saved By The Bell were pretty cool though, right? That Micro Machines guy :ROFLMAO:
 
No, it's not the ads people are sick of, it's the large fees with contracts and bundling of crap you don't want (like a landline phone). Hulu has been extremely successful and they've maintained ads in their main tier. Spotify has ads in it's free streaming service, which I used for several years while overseas, which is what most of their user base uses. (I've since moved to their premium service now that I'm stateside, but it was for off-line content, not ad-free content.) Most users tend to be ok with ads. It's paying for crap they don't want that they tend to struggle with. Sure, many will gladly drop more money for an ad-free version, but that isn't most.
 
Yup ads are bad. My wife watched all the walking dead shows on netflix and when she tried to watch this year for the first time on live TV... Well it was like an hour and a half for a 40 minute show. There were so many commercials - even fast forwarding through the recording was annoying. Now she'll just wait until it's released without the commercials...

But hey - more power to Amazon. If it works for them, and some people like it - then great. But I'm thinking it's just a business model that is 20years too old, and nobody will like it.
 
I would rather pay to keep my prime account.

I get free 1-day and 2-day shipping for purchases on amazon, as a bonus.

However, I like Netflix's selection more.
 
MrDeaf said:
However, I like Netflix's selection more.
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I am understanding the reason for Netflix's interest in investing into their own productions...as many corporations are trying to pull out and make there own streaming services. I may just stop streaming all together if it gets bad...not paying for multiple streaming services...hope this backfires eventually and we go back to major players for streaming.
 
All depends on how. If I get more content from them and have a couple commercials at the beginning of the movie or episode I don't care. More content is better. I'll use that time to fix my dinner or grab some snacks.
If they interrupt the stream every thirty minutes to put in an ad then I would not be happy.
 
Didn't cable start this way? First they promised commercial free TV. Then added just a few commercials. Now its about 1/3 commercials. And the cable companies consider any attempt to block or skip commercials to be pure evil.
 
I pay Hulu a few extra bucks a month to get rid of commercials. I don't watch anything on it - wife has several shows she likes. It lets me keep cable out of the house, so way cheaper.

As long as Amazon Prime has a commercial free version, I'm fine with it. I pay for Prime now. I rarely use their video service though...I've tried it but either don't find much or what I want to watch costs me extra.

I was thinking (scary). Another problem I have with all of the streaming services - there isn't a consistent way to do a global search. Apple TV sort of has it, but it only works for certain shows. I think Roku has some form of this - but I don't recall having a lot of luck with it. I want something like the interface to Netflix/Plex/Hulu - except it has feeds from every stream I'm paying for. I want a global search.
 
It may not be what most cord cutters want, but there are also those who may not want a prime subscription, but wouldn't mind watching Man in the High Tower (for example). Personally, If you only want to watch one show, I'd just sign up for a month (even if you're paying) watch the show and cancel the sub. I thin a month is only 10 bucks, right?
 
steakman1971 said:
I pay Hulu a few extra bucks a month to get rid of commercials. I don't watch anything on it - wife has several shows she likes. It lets me keep cable out of the house, so way cheaper.

As long as Amazon Prime has a commercial free version, I'm fine with it. I pay for Prime now. I rarely use their video service though...I've tried it but either don't find much or what I want to watch costs me extra.

I was thinking (scary). Another problem I have with all of the streaming services - there isn't a consistent way to do a global search. Apple TV sort of has it, but it only works for certain shows. I think Roku has some form of this - but I don't recall having a lot of luck with it. I want something like the interface to Netflix/Plex/Hulu - except it has feeds from every stream I'm paying for. I want a global search.
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I think you may be able to do that with a Tivo. Of course if you don't want to pay a monthly fee for their guide, the up front cost is pretty expensive.
 
Serious generalization/assumption there; I and many others I know cut the cord due to cost, not commercials.
 
I'd like the option for just prime shipping. I watch their prime video maybe once a year.
 
d8lock said:
I'd like the option for just prime shipping. I watch their prime video maybe once a year.
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Wal-Mart just had a commercial showing 2-day shipping with no monthly/annual charges...I would expect in a couple years or so Amazon firing back with something similar.
 
d8lock said:
I'd like the option for just prime shipping. I watch their prime video maybe once a year.
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Thing is that there's not a big discount for that. If you figure that before the video it was something like 80/year, you're paying 20 bucks for the other features. If you watch it once a year, that's 10 bucks. use the music or back up storage and you're even. I actually think it's more owrth it for the video than the shipping, though Amazon has made the shipping more desirable buy holding onto non-prime packages for several days (and it's obvious that's why they hold the packages, because 5 years ago I could get normal shipping in 2 days (they had a hub near me at that time). Then they started holding packages for 2-5 days and then shipping.
 
Viper16 said:
Wal-Mart just had a commercial showing 2-day shipping with no monthly/annual charges...I would expect in a couple years or so Amazon firing back with something similar.
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Yes, but it sounds like Walmart is making online prices higher than store prices, so it's really not free.
 
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