• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Amazon Prime Video is about to get worse — again

MrGuvernment

MrGuvernment

Fully [H]
2FA
Joined
Aug 3, 2004
Messages
23,951
Another reason for some to cancel another sub?

Amazon Prime Video is about to get worse — again​

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/amazon-prime-video-is-about-to-get-worse-again/ar-AA1Z3MEr

Amazon just announced some big changes for Prime Video subscribers.

Amazon shocked its Prime Video subscribers last week with a grim email notification: Prices are going up. Its Ad Free plan is being renamed to Prime Video Ultra, and certain features are being removed from basic Prime Video memberships.

Beginning April 10, the new Prime Video Ultra add-on will cost $4.99/month or $45.99/year — and that’s in addition to your base Amazon Prime membership, which costs about $14.99/month with free shipping perks.

It’s a lot to take in, so let’s go over what this means for different types of subscribers.
Click to expand...
What is Prime Video Ultra?

“Prime Video Ultra” is the new name for what used to be Prime Video’s ad-free add-on. Rather than replacing your base Amazon Prime subscription, it unlocks extra streaming perks. As far as I know, Prime is the only streaming service that structures its plans and pricing like this.

Amazon announces they are raising prices on Prime Video ad-free subscriptions
Prime memberships and subscribers of an annual Prime membership can

There used to only be one, ad-free Prime Video tier. Then Amazon introduced ads to all Prime Video subscriptions, and introduced the option to remove them with an optional add-on for $2.99/month.

Amazon is continuing this trend of removing features from its base plan and paywalling them behind this optional add-on in 2026. That ad-free add-on will go up to $4.99/month beginning April 10, when it will be renamed to Prime Video Ultra.

With this price increase come three new perks for premium subscribers, plus one that was stolen straight from the standard tier (more on that later).

Unfortunately, there’s no way to opt out of this change and stay on the old ad-free plan, even if you don’t care about the other new perks.

Perks included with Prime Video Ultra​

  • Ad-free streaming
  • 4K UHD video
  • Dolby Atmos sound
  • 100 offline downloads
  • 5 concurrent streams

Changes for basic subscribers​


Unfortunately, if you don’t subscribe to the new Ultra add-on, your service is about to get worse. You’ll no longer be able to stream in 4K UHD, instead capping out at a modest 1080p.

This is pretty par for the course with streaming services in 2026. 4K is now a luxury reserved for the highest-tier premium subscribers.

You’d think that TV manufacturers would start complaining about this at some point. If no one can afford to subscribe to premium 4K television tiers, why would they spend money on 4K TVs

Perks included with Prime Video (without Ultra)​

  • 25 offline downloads
  • 3 concurrent streams
Click to expand...
 
The streaming industry is giving up on everything that made it boom.

They could increase profits by cutting costs and making less content no one watches instead of this. Each platform doesn't need 1000 different shows every year. They're writing their own demise by being short sighted. Good luck with that.

b3rkmn3N.gif
 
SticKx911 said:
The streaming industry is giving up on everything that made it boom.

They could increase profits by cutting costs and making less content no one watches instead of this. Each platform doesn't need 1000 different shows every year. They're writing their own demise by being short sighted. Good luck with that.

View attachment 792768
Click to expand...
Aye matey. Some of us lads never left the ship
 
narsbars said:
CC company said it was in the terms. To be honest after review I found where it basically said "we can screw you at any time and in any way and you agree".
Click to expand...
Sadly the state of consumer protection laws in North America, we have none. those EULA usually all state "we can change terms and not tell you a dam thing", and politicians wont ever change that because they get lobbied so hard by these corps with donations...flawed system in the end that wont ever benefit us consumers.
 
All the streaming services are jacking up prices. That being said, I only join a streaming service for a month or two to binge the series I want to watch and move on to the next streaming service. I'll sign up for PRIME when new seasons The BOYS, Invincible and Spider-Noir are all available.

On a side note, look for deals and promos including with your credit card.
 
TangledThornz said:
All the streaming services are jacking up prices. That being said, I only join a streaming service for a month or two to binge the series I want to watch and move on to the next streaming service. I'll sign up for PRIME when new seasons The BOYS, Invincible and Spider-Noir are all available.

On a side note, look for deals and promos including with your credit card.
Click to expand...
I only have so much time. If they make it hard or frustrating to consume their products, I will simply stop consuming them in favor of something else.

I do get what you are saying and that saving a buck or so might make a difference for some. I just don't understand how they (all streaming places, not just Amazon) think this is a winning strategy. 🤷
 
guavaball said:
Aye matey. Some of us lads never left the ship
View attachment 792788
Click to expand...
I was willing to sub to services that were reasonable, even if I was using the arr's and plex to consume the content. I was day one with Disney+ for 3 years out the gate. At $8/mo, that was an awesome deal for the the entertainment they gave my family.

If they're going to start treating customers like an entitlement, I'm not above treating their content the same way.

The music industry learned this lesson. No one pirates music anymore because streaming is hassle free and affordable. 🤷
 
Thanks. This reminded me to cancel the add-free add-on that my daughter asked me for while she was binge watching a show. She told me to cancel it and I forgot to last week when she told me. Now I just need to see how I can cancel Prime and them not notice lol.
 
1_rick said:
Lot of people not quite smart enough to realize they're the boiling frog. Or maybe too lazy to get out of the pot.
Click to expand...
Yup. People vehemently argue for the death of physical media while streaming...
1. Video quality is significantly worse (more compressed = 1/4 the bitrate, reduced color space, increased artifacts)
2. Audio quality is significantly worse (low quality audio bitrate used)
3. Content becomes increasingly limited/disappeared/censored
4. Increasingly more expensive
5. Fragmented - different services have different movies.

Convenience comes at a price.
 
SticKx911 said:
I only have so much time. If they make it hard or frustrating to consume their products, I will simply stop consuming them in favor of something else.

I do get what you are saying and that saving a buck or so might make a difference for some. I just don't understand how they (all streaming places, not just Amazon) think this is a winning strategy. 🤷
Click to expand...

Because VOD expect subscribers to be lazy and not cancel their subscription which I expect happens a lot since VODs keep raising subscription fees.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Yup. People vehemently argue for the death of physical media while streaming...
1. Video quality is significantly worse (more compressed = 1/4 the bitrate, reduced color space, increased artifacts)
2. Audio quality is significantly worse (low quality audio bitrate used)
3. Content becomes increasingly limited/disappeared/censored
4. Increasingly more expensive
5. Fragmented - different services have different movies.

Convenience comes at a price.
Click to expand...
Yes, but aren’t you glad you don’t have to walk to your mailbox anymore? ;)
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Yup. People vehemently argue for the death of physical media while streaming...
1. Video quality is significantly worse (more compressed = 1/4 the bitrate, reduced color space, increased artifacts)
2. Audio quality is significantly worse (low quality audio bitrate used)
3. Content becomes increasingly limited/disappeared/censored
4. Increasingly more expensive
5. Fragmented - different services have different movies.

Convenience comes at a price.
Click to expand...
(looks at his big bluray collection) Yep. :)
 
mullet said:
What they did with the rings of power was criminal.
Click to expand...
This.

I was trying to watch something on Prime yesterday and the regular 4 minute intervals of ads is absolutely atrocious. I usually make a mental note of the ads I get that are in places I hate, and then I actively avoid those brands.
 
Cancelled Netflix. Thinking about cancelling Amazon Prime too. It's silly how much money is spent on these services.
 
Cancelled everything. I work for a major ISP and we have some streaming services free as an employee benefit but every single up charge for ad free tiers or any subscription that I was paying out of pocket for are now gone. Tired of being squeezed. No regrets.
 
My kids watch stuff on Amazon. It does them good to have commercials. My Sat mornings growing up were full of them. I turned out fine.

I hardly watch anything on Amazon, but it comes with the yearly subscription, so it's going to be there. Most entertainment comes from Plex these days.
 
I watch very little on Prime. Very little. Now that Grand Tour is done, almost nothing. Youtube now has a ton of movies and I watch ad free because of Premium. I don't think I could ever pay more for Prime Video ad free.
 
When everything was $10-$15 and add on channels where $5 I had a few of them..now I'm down to Netflix and Amazon and I'm probably about to cancel Amazon cuz I don't really use it and only order a few things a year now that computer crap went up so much.

These companies are stupid they don't recognize that if they keep it at $10 each people will have multiple accounts across a few platforms...now people will have 1 or 2 and now all the platforms are competing against each other.
 
sfsuphysics said:
I mean if you're watching on a computer Ublock Origin already gets rid of ads. Not sure if some "global" thing like pihole does it though
Click to expand...
True, and just like youtube, very nice. But, the more we "praise this", the more attention the exploiters of the world will attempt to address and eliminate it. Just saying. Today, many don't know about this. But now, at least everyone on this forum knows. Good thing? Or is a big hammer coming now?
 
DogsofJune said:
My kids watch stuff on Amazon. It does them good to have commercials. My Sat mornings growing up were full of them. I turned out fine.
Click to expand...
My complaint with the streaming ads is the lack of "censorship" as in, they're random. Cartoon commercials used to be for more toons or toys. Now they'll have ED commercials or worse when they really don't need to be bombarded with that crap. 🤷
 
SticKx911 said:
My complaint with the streaming ads is the lack of "censorship" as in, they're random. Cartoon commercials used to be for more toons or toys. Now they'll have ED commercials or worse when they really don't need to be bombarded with that crap. 🤷
Click to expand...

My favorite are youtube advertisements trying to sell me $250,000 construction vehicles becuase my kid is watching Truck Tunes.
 
Seems funny to say that, but Prime is my primary, most often watched, streaming service and I think the price for the ad-free option is still fair. So I'll pay without a rant.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top