Amazon Prime Brings You All The Ads At No Extra Cost — Want No Ads, Well You’re Paying More For That Viewing Experience
On the 29th January Amazon flicked a switch and more than 350 million Amazon Prime subscribers around the world started receiving ads on their previously ad-free Amazon Prime video subscription service.
These subscribers were offered the choice of accepting the new ad-supported service or pay another $3 per month to continue to receive their existing service without ads.
And this is just how one of the video streamers is introducing ads into their previously ad free monthly subscription services.
Netflix are offering their subscribers the opportunity to trade down to an ad-supported service for a monthly subscription fee of $7 per month, down from the existing ad-free basic plan of $10 per month but for new subscribers to Netflix, the ad-free basic tier has now risen to $17 per month.
In these difficult economic times, with the rising cost of living being experienced by all Australians, the $10 monthly difference between an ad-supported and ad-free monthly Netflix subscription will prove telling and in all likelihood most new subscribers will opt for the ad-supported option.
Similarly, Disney Plus and Binge have already introduced ad-supported basic subscription levels and a Paramount Plus advertising tier is being introduced in the coming months.
That just leaves Apple TV at $13 per month with no ads and Stan offering their basic $10 per month service with no ads.
All the ads on these services are non-skippable, so if you’ve opted for the cheaper ad-supported tier, you’re stuck with watching the ads, which is all a bit ironic as the initial appeal of first Pay TV and then streaming services was the ability to watch shows without the interruptions of the ads experienced on free to air TV channels.
And what is going to further annoy subscribers to Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Disney Plus or Paramount Plus is that all the massive investment in new TV content programming is over — the great Golden Age of TV production whereby the streamers couldn’t invest quickly enough in new programming has come to a screeching halt as financial reality has come home to roost.
All the streamers are unprofitable, and in an attempt to turn this around, and following the script writers and actors strike in Hollywood, all the streamers have announced large staff cutbacks and a reduction in the production of new shows.
So, the bottom line as we move through 2024 — less, but less with ads — happy new year!
Wide Eyes News from the Tube is written by a leading industry expert and is focused on providing a quick snapshot of the best opportunities in the television & animation market.
This article originally appeared in Edition 47 of The Bugg Report Magazine
