Amazon Prime Video to feature ads in NZ

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JPNZ

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#317531 24-Oct-2024 09:10

Starting early 2025 Amazon has advised that adverts will be rolled out into its NZ service. They aim to have fewer adverts than standard domestic TV.

They will also offer an ad free option but no word on pricing yet

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Handsomedan

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#3300820 24-Oct-2024 09:31

I just don't get the whole concept of paying for a service, then having to watch ads.

It might mean I stop watching Prime.

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jonathan18

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#3300824 24-Oct-2024 09:45

Disappointing - especially if that involves interrupting the programme to play ads. I could cope better with them if only before the programme starts.

I totally get (and cope with) having ads if the SVOD service itself is free (eg TVNZ On Demand), but it's a @#$#@ cheek to add ads to a service one is already paying for; and, then in a salt/wounds move, it's even worse to provide you with the option to pay more to get rid of the very thing they just added!

Senecio

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#3300827 24-Oct-2024 09:54

Handsomedan:

I just don't get the whole concept of paying for a service, then having to watch ads.

Sky NZ says hold my beer!

tehgerbil

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#3300828 24-Oct-2024 09:58

Apt article on Ars today about quality is dropping but subscription fees keep rising for streaming services.

It's economics, if you increase prices 10% but lose only 8% of subscribers, you're still making more money.

Case and point is Netflix.

The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.

It's enshittification on speedrun.

cddt

1497 posts

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#3300833 24-Oct-2024 10:15

Handsomedan:

I just don't get the whole concept of paying for a service, then having to watch ads.

Sky has been doing this for decades!

My referral links: BigPipe | Mercury

outdoorsnz

674 posts

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#3300835 24-Oct-2024 10:18

With youtube, sometimes ads have got so annoying I just exit and watch another streaming service. So most likely will cancel prime.

Over ads!

boosacnoodle

961 posts

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#3300836 24-Oct-2024 10:21

I will be cancelling.

jonathan18

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#3300885 24-Oct-2024 10:43

cddt:

Sky has been doing this for decades!

... just one of the reasons I won't subscribe to Sky or Neon...

panther2

370 posts

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#3301053 24-Oct-2024 13:48

That will be our subscription canned

old3eyes

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#3301172 24-Oct-2024 17:43

I've been seeing them for months on my US account. Usually one at the start of the movie or program and that's it.

Regards,

Old3eyes

Wheelbarrow01

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Chorus

#3301222 24-Oct-2024 21:37

My Prime subscription often plays ads/promos for other Prime shows/movies at the start of watching something, but I can skip it easily enough.

That is not the same as being forced to watch ads for products without the ability to skip. If that is the intention on a paid service then they can bugger off. And no I won't simply pay more for ad removal.

I've been thinking lately that's it's time to consolidate anyway (we currently pay for Prime, Netflix, Neon, Disney and YouTube), so this may be the catalyst. I've already all but ditched Sky completely (now Basic only - and even that is on borrowed time).

Personally I watch more YouTube than anything else these days - we only have the other streaming services because wifey seems to be halfway through a season of this or that on each of them. But I think we'll get to a point that we pay for Netflix for a couple of months, then cancel and subscribe to something else for a couple of months, rinse and repeat. That way we'll actually save quite a bit of coin over the course of a year.