Commercials Coming to Amazon Prime: I got this email the other day: "Dear Prime member, We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting...

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

I got this email the other day:

"Dear Prime member,

We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting January 29, 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 linear TV 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.

Prime is a very compelling value. Prime members enjoy a wide range of shopping, savings, and entertainment benefits, including:

More than 300 million items are available with free Prime shipping and tens of millions of the most popular items are available with free Same-Day or One-Day Delivery.
Access to exclusive and broad streaming video content (including Prime Video exclusives like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Boys, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Citadel, The Wheel of Time, Reacher, and The Summer I Turned Pretty, as well as blockbuster movies such as Air, Creed III, Dungeons & Dragons, Candy Cane Lane with Eddie Murphy, and exclusive live sports including NFL Thursday Night Football).
Access to Prime Video Channels, which provides an unmatched selection of subscription channels like Max, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, BET+, MGM+, ViX+, Crunchyroll, PBS KIDS, NBA League Pass, MLB.TV, and STARZ—with no extra apps to download, and no cable required. Customers only pay for the ones they want, and can cancel anytime.

The ability to use your Prime shopping benefits—like fast, free delivery, a seamless checkout experience, 24/7 live chat support, and hassle-free returns—on online stores beyond Amazon.com with Buy with Prime.
Exclusive deals and shopping events like Prime Day.

Ad-free listening of 100 million songs and millions of podcast episodes with Amazon Music.
Prescription medications as low as $1 per month and fast, free shipping from Amazon Pharmacy.
Access to unlimited eligible generic prescription medications for only $5 per month (including free shipping) with RxPass from Amazon Pharmacy.

High-quality health care from One Medical for only $9 per month (or $99 annually), with the option to add up to five additional memberships for the family for only $6 per month (or $66 annually) each.
Free two-hour Fresh grocery delivery on orders over $100 (and delivery charges between $6.95 to $9.95 for orders less than $100), and in-store savings on select groceries at Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market stores across the U.S.

Unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos.
Gaming benefits with Prime Gaming.
More than 3,000 books and magazines with Prime Reading.
A free, one-year Grubhub+ membership trial valued at $120 per year, offering unlimited $0 delivery fees on orders over $12.

And, you can expect additional features and programs added in the future for our Prime members.

As mentioned above, no action is required from you. If you wish to sign up for the ad-free option, you can click here. And, as always, if you have questions about your Prime membership, you can manage your account here.

Thank you for being a valued member of Amazon Prime."

Bolded words are by me. I would say that "limited advertisements" and "meaningfully fewer ads" are undefined terms. What do you think, Prime viewers? And, are you go to pay the 3 bucks per month to avoid the ads?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

But you can now pay to not get the ads.
Just like Weather.com?

Great gimmick - people pay to have the ads shown, others pay to not see them.
Revenue both ways!

tramsey Loc: Texas

I got one of those those to. I was on the fence about letting Amazon Prime go and this pushed me over. I've had Prime for a while now. I sent them an email and told them I was tired of the gimmicks so on January one you can count me out. I'm sure all of Amazon's administration will be devastated, as if they gave a rip about anything else but the bottom line.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

tramsey wrote:

I got one of those those to. I was on the fence about letting Amazon Prime go and this pushed me over. I've had Prime for a while now. I sent them an email and told them I was tired of the gimmicks so on January one you can count me out. I'm sure all of Amazon's administration will be devastated, as if they gave a rip about anything else but the bottom line.

We don't do Prime. We don't order that much during the year.
As for videos, we have cable, Brit Box, PBS Passport, and Disney+, which is quite enough.

BebuLamar

Longshadow wrote:

We don't do Prime. We don't order that much during the year.
As for videos, we have cable, Brit Box, PBS Passport, and Disney+, which is quite enough.

I don't pay to shop.

cahale Loc: San Angelo, TX

DWU2 wrote:

I got this email the other day:

"Dear Prime member,

We are writing to you today about an upcoming change to your Prime Video experience. Starting January 29, 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 linear TV 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.

Prime is a very compelling value. Prime members enjoy a wide range of shopping, savings, and entertainment benefits, including:

More than 300 million items are available with free Prime shipping and tens of millions of the most popular items are available with free Same-Day or One-Day Delivery.
Access to exclusive and broad streaming video content (including Prime Video exclusives like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Boys, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Citadel, The Wheel of Time, Reacher, and The Summer I Turned Pretty, as well as blockbuster movies such as Air, Creed III, Dungeons & Dragons, Candy Cane Lane with Eddie Murphy, and exclusive live sports including NFL Thursday Night Football).
Access to Prime Video Channels, which provides an unmatched selection of subscription channels like Max, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, BET+, MGM+, ViX+, Crunchyroll, PBS KIDS, NBA League Pass, MLB.TV, and STARZ—with no extra apps to download, and no cable required. Customers only pay for the ones they want, and can cancel anytime.

The ability to use your Prime shopping benefits—like fast, free delivery, a seamless checkout experience, 24/7 live chat support, and hassle-free returns—on online stores beyond Amazon.com with Buy with Prime.
Exclusive deals and shopping events like Prime Day.

Ad-free listening of 100 million songs and millions of podcast episodes with Amazon Music.
Prescription medications as low as $1 per month and fast, free shipping from Amazon Pharmacy.
Access to unlimited eligible generic prescription medications for only $5 per month (including free shipping) with RxPass from Amazon Pharmacy.

High-quality health care from One Medical for only $9 per month (or $99 annually), with the option to add up to five additional memberships for the family for only $6 per month (or $66 annually) each.
Free two-hour Fresh grocery delivery on orders over $100 (and delivery charges between $6.95 to $9.95 for orders less than $100), and in-store savings on select groceries at Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market stores across the U.S.

Unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos.
Gaming benefits with Prime Gaming.
More than 3,000 books and magazines with Prime Reading.
A free, one-year Grubhub+ membership trial valued at $120 per year, offering unlimited $0 delivery fees on orders over $12.

And, you can expect additional features and programs added in the future for our Prime members.

As mentioned above, no action is required from you. If you wish to sign up for the ad-free option, you can click here. And, as always, if you have questions about your Prime membership, you can manage your account here.

Thank you for being a valued member of Amazon Prime."

Bolded words are by me. I would say that "limited advertisements" and "meaningfully fewer ads" are undefined terms. What do you think, Prime viewers? And, are you go to pay the 3 bucks per month to avoid the ads?

I got this email the other day: br br i "De... (show quote)

Statement: "This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time."

Meaning: This will allow us to continue making money hand over fist for a long period of time.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

cahale wrote:

Statement: "This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time."

Meaning: This will allow us to continue making money hand over fist for a long period of time.

Yup.

mr spock Loc: Fairfield CT

cahale wrote:

Statement: "This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time."

Meaning: This will allow us to continue making money hand over fist for a long period of time.

Ya got that right!

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

A lot of streaming services advertise, and no one complains about that. In addition to using Prime video, I do a lot of shopping on Amazon. Their customer service, shipping and returns policies are top notch. I have a credit card that gives me 5% off everything I purchase on Amazon and it pays for my Prime membership and a lot more. It's a question of Value Perceived vs Cost and in my case, the value is well worth the cost. Whether they make larger profits is not an issue and more power to them.

moosus

I assumed Jeff Bezos needed another half-billion-dollar boat.

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

I believe this is called Capitalism. What the market will bear. No one is putting a gun to anyone’s head and forcing anyone to take the deal. If you don’t like it walk away. If one changes their mind no one will say sorry you can’t get the offer now.

Canisdirus

NJFrank wrote:

I believe this is called Capitalism. What the market will bear. No one is putting a gun to anyone’s head and forcing anyone to take the deal. If you don’t like it walk away. If one changes their mind no one will say sorry you can’t get the offer now.

Now now...don't be reasonable and informed...not here.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I am also now getting Amazon ads saying that those on Medicare, etc. can get Prime for half price. I'm an old guy on a fixed income, and I resent the $%%^ out of that.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Reuss Griffiths wrote:

A lot of streaming services advertise, and no one complains about that. ...
....

They started with ads...
The post is about changing to ads after no ads and charging to not get them.
A wee bit different scenario.

Walkabout08

I’m a Prime guy but I don’t watch Prime Video. If I did I’d likely cancel. All these streaming services apparently are adding commercials even though you’re paying for the service in the first place. I can’t understand why subscribers put up with it..