• ArugulaZ@lemmy.zip
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    9 hours ago

    “Tolerate,” my ass. I’m paying the three dollars a month for ad-free Prime, because I’m not watching ads during an election year. The damn election is stressful enough as it is.

    Prime Video is just barely worth the price, but now that all the Stephen J. Cannell shows have been moved to Shout Factory TV, I’m reconsidering. Between that and all the shows on Freevee (uh, what part of “ad free viewing” don’t you understand?), the only tangible benefit I get from Amazon Prime is free shipping… and that free shipping isn’t as fast as it used to be before the pandemic.

  • celsiustimeline@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    16 hours ago

    Attention subscribers! We will be making your experience worse going forward! We’re not even going to soften our language to make it seem like we’re doing you a favor! More ads for everyone!

  • Arkatakor@lemm.ee
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    14 hours ago

    🎶We’re rascals and scoundrels, we’re villains and knaves Drink up me hearties, yo ho We’re devils and black sheep, we’re really bad eggs Drink up me hearties, yo ho Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me🎶

    • celsiustimeline@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      16 hours ago

      Prime Video is easily the worst mainstream streaming service. Fuck all for selection, movies that you think are available cost money, and the add-on channels only have select episodes or seasons, never full shows.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        14 hours ago

        Yup, I had it for a bit when we used Prime, but the experience sucked so I naturally just didn’t use it. Then I realized I’m only using shipping and Twitch subs, and that certainly wasn’t worth the cost, so I cancelled.

        Screw 'em.

  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Stopped watching netflix because they banned sharing accounts and £18 (24 USD) monthly was too much for just one person. Cheaper plans didn’t have 4K or 5.1 audio, so it felt like a waste when I couldn’t even use my setup as it is meant to be used.

    Never watched prime because I refuse to pay for something then still see ads.

    Now I either source stuff by other means (🏴‍☠️🦜) and put it on my media server, or I use BBC iPlayer. Not sure if that’s a thing outside of the UK, but zero ads and decent quality programming is something I’m happy to pay their fee for, especially when it also goes towards funding ad-free TV, radio, news, sport, podcasts, etc.

    It’s fucked how greed has completely ruined the streaming market. Back in ~2010 it felt like the market was going in such a positive direction.

    • Meowing Thing@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      Same thing happened with cable decades ago.

      The public TV was full of ads and bad programs. Cable offered you pay them for no ads, good series and new movies. Then the prices rose, then the ads started, then the programs turned to shit as much or even more than before.

      Streaming just went the same path.

  • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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    17 hours ago

    I have free prime through my ISP. I still pirate the content. I started even before the full blown ads, when they had “previews” of other shows and movies.

  • spector@lemmy.ca
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    19 hours ago

    They’ve been increasing the ad load the whole time. The most I’ve seen so far is 5 ads. Streaming will return to broadcast TV convention sooner than people think probably. 15 minutes of ads per hour.

  • OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip
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    15 hours ago

    I paid for the ad free add-on while Rings of Power is on but after that I’ll just cancel Prime completely until there’s another show I want to watch, so they’re overall losing money from me with this decision.

  • rubikcuber@feddit.uk
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    22 hours ago

    I unsubscribed in January and still have too much stuff to watch. Although that is helped by being in the UK and having iPlayer I guess. I’ve also spent way less on impulse buying crap because of the free shipping. Absolutely do not miss Prime.

      • 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        18 hours ago

        Often times better… I have a 1080p 5.1 surround version of sg1. Prime has a 4:3 version with 2.0 audio, not to mention it’s super dark.

    • macrocephalic@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      I think I’d miss the free shipping and I might have to actually put things in a cart and wait until I reach minimum order to checkout. I could easily live without video and when I actually went to watch something on it the other day the ads were already enough to turn me off

      • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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        15 hours ago

        a good way to balance if it’s worth it, look at your order history, and look at delivery costs of items without prime, and then divide the yearly price of prime by the delivery cost, then again by 12.

        For example, if the average shipping cost is 7$, that’s roughly 1.6 orders small (read under 35$) a month, if you order less than that it might not be worth keeping prime.

      • variants@possumpat.io
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        17 hours ago

        I stopped my auto renew for next year, we don’t order things like we used to so at this point we probably pay more on the yearly contract than we would have on shipping. Plus best buy Costco and Walmart have decent webstores too so we’ll probably diversify a little

      • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        21 hours ago

        That’s exactly what I am doing. Bought something from them (ugh) 3 times this year. All something my brick and mortar store either pulled from inventory and doesnt sell anymore, more expensive elsewhere or just damn convenience since it’s bigger at the store and thus cumbersome to transport or too expensive or both.

      • CrimsonMishaps@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        You’re already paying for shipping - just upfront and once a year. My reasoning when I quit was that I could likely add things to get to the free shipping or just pay for shipping a few times and still save money.

    • Obinice@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Check out Ludwig on iPlayer it’s a good watch! David Mitchell in some light, witty modern day Poirot detectiveing.

  • GreenSofaBed@lemmy.zip
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    17 hours ago

    And they’ve already ramped it up quite a bit. Been watching a show for couple of months, used to be one ad per episode, which I could handle, now it’s like every 10 minutes. So I’ve already cancelled and found the show using other ways.

    • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Paramount’s video player is ass. I have to fight it to start the video by reloading the page and clicking exactly in the right places. Then the player doesn’t pause when the space bar is pressed. And to top it off, the progress bar doesn’t disappear unless you click inside the window then float the mouse away. Fuck that noise. It isn’t worth it. What’s the point of paying if the service is broken?

      Yar har.

  • Pika@sh.itjust.works
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    16 hours ago

    I mean, I never used prime video even when it was as free, it’s selection was garbage even compared to Netflix which has been known to have nothing of value for a few years now. I don’t see how them adding /more/ ads is going to do anything but make other people come to the same conclusion I did.