• TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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    3 months 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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      3 months 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.

  • Veneroso@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Hmmm maybe it’s time to solicit that VPN that doesn’t collect logs and is shady enough to accept cash payment…

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      In this day and age, accepting cash payments is the least shady and most customer friendly thing of all.

      It’s the ones who want to know ALL about you and partner with payment processors who want to know ALL about you that are shady.

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        What shall we do with an ad filled service? What shall we do with an ad filled service? What shall we do with an ad filled service? Before we go crazy!

        Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Before we go crazy!

        Cancel our subscription with greatest haste now! Cancel our subscription with greatest haste now! Cancel our subscription with greatest haste now! Before we go crazy!

        Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Before we go crazy!

        Search for the show on pirate websites! Search for the show on pirate websites! Search for the show on pirate websites! Before we go crazy!

        Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Ahoy the season is starting! Before we go crazy!

      • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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        3 months ago

        Yarr harr fiddle dee dee

        Stealing from Bezos is alright with me

        Don’t watch their ads cause your time’s not for free

        You are a pirate!

  • nifty@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    What’s good about Amazon anyway? It’s better to get stuff directly from a sellers site, even better if they’re indie. There’s not much value to prime shipping anymore, most sellers are pretty good about it now ironically because of Amazon. Using services like Amazon just creates more pollution, wage depression and small business closures. Use services like Amazon less, favor indie and small and fair wage businesses

    • LifeOfChance@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The hardest part to combat is laziness. Amazon is a one stop shop. Personally I don’t care to shop online much anymore but when I do I’m always using direct websites for the companies since I know what I’m looking for.

      Also something scary to think about, They could lose most of their customers and still thrive because of how much money they have already pulled in.

    • Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      While I do try to buy direct on some items that I am confident I’ll keep. The return policy and ease of use are why I’m still with Amazon. I just don’t want to have to deal with thirty different companies and their return policies.

      But if I’m buying something like replacement parts or something that I’m not sure about if there isn’t significant savings, then I’m going with Amazon for piece of mind that I can return the item at no cost to me.

  • aramis87@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    [When launched] Prime Video with ads was given a “very light ad load,” providing subscribers “gentle entry into advertising that has exceeded customers expectations in terms of what the ad experience would be like." The executive pointed out that Prime Video with ads doesn’t show commercials in the middle of content. That could change next year.

    Planned enshittification a la boiling frogs.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      So are executives born with an asshole where their mouth belongs or do they surgically put it on when you get the gig?

    • NineMileTower@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’ll just pirate their shit. I’ll pirate it so hard and I’ll do it with both middle fingers in the air. But not literally, I would definitely need both hands to pirate their content.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The executive pointed out that Prime Video with ads doesn’t show commercials in the middle of content. That could change next year.

      So regular TV is designed around the ads.

      Cliff hangers before ads are done not only for the story, but to keep you there through the ad to get the outcome to the cliffhanger.

      That partially went away with the no ad streaming.

      Now that shitty behavior is going to come back.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Now that shitty behavior is going to come back.

        Of course not. Streaming sites are far too lazy for that. They’ll just cram the commercial into the middle of the show with no regard for the story. It’s the only way they’ll be able to put ads in the middle of shows not made to have ads.

      • aramis87@fedia.io
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        3 months ago

        What did they interrupt the episode for? Because a number of companies have adopted the policy that, if the interruption is promoting something else offered by the platform - say, a different program, or another tier of service - that those interruptions aren’t really ads, because the company isn’t actually getting paid to air it. It absolutely looks and acts like an ad to the viewers, but the companies are trying to redefine the word.

    • FarceOfWill@infosec.pub
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      3 months ago

      Light my arse, from the start they’ve interrupted with adverts for their own crap making it barely tolerable. Even on the adfree tier.

      Canceled and no intention of ever going back. Measuring your ad load by American standards doesn’t work when your competition is netflix and iPlayer.

    • Don_alForno@feddit.org
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      3 months ago

      The executive pointed out that Prime Video with ads doesn’t show commercials in the middle of Content

      That’s a blatant lie, it definitely does.

      • aramis87@fedia.io
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        3 months ago

        Copying my reply to someone else:

        What did they interrupt the episode for? Because a number of companies have adopted the policy that, if the interruption is promoting something else offered by the platform - say, a different program, or another tier of service - that those interruptions aren’t really ads, because the company isn’t actually getting paid to air it. It absolutely looks and acts like an ad to the viewers, but the companies are trying to redefine the word.

        • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I’m getting non-stop Samsung, insurance, food, and other kinds of ads in the middle of shows.

          It makes me not want to use Prime. And in fact, I don’t anymore.

  • Ironfacebuster@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Good thing adblock didn’t work on the browser version of Prime video last time I used it after getting tired of the ads on the app version!

    It’s possible they’re embedding ads now though

  • Marleyinoc@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    And when it crashes the greedy rich fuckers who invested will find a way to pass the losses to the tax payers. Private gains and socialized losses are the newest trick of the rich.

  • underthesign@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Just in time for me to have already cancelled my Prime membership last month. I’ve also not purchased from Amazon at all since then. Plan working as intended?!

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I do have a prime account as do use Amazon, but we haven’t watched a second of prime TV since they put ads in the included video subscription.

      • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        For some reason this was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I setup a NAS, Plex server and all the arr apps. It’s been amazing. Haven’t looked back.

        • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I’m using plex but still hosting it on my desktop which is a little inconvenient at times. I really should set up an always available NAS

    • CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      When they announced the ads it was just the incentive I needed to quit Prime totally. I don’t miss it. I already was wary of buying from Amazon due to the sketchy sellers and fake products, so I’m glad buying my stuff elsewhere except when I can’t find something somewhere else, which has been rare.

      • Goodtoknow@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        Same, dumped them, but they resubscribed me twice weeks later to Prime after I got two confirmation emails I was cancelled

  • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I canceled prime as soon as they introduced ads into prime video. You should do the same.

    You’ll be less tempted to buy shit from them as an added benefit!

    • DJDarren@thelemmy.club
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      3 months ago

      I know it’s only fractionally better, but I’ve started using AliExpress more for shit that I’d buy on Amazon in the past. Delivery takes a couple of weeks, but that’s had the added bonus of making think about how much I really need the thing I’m ordering.

      But yeah, we canceled Prime when they added adverts. We didn’t really watch much on there, but it gave us the bump we needed to stop giving Amazon £10 a month, even if we didn’t order anything.

      • interurbain1er@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        I also started to use AE, I feel a bit queasy about it for no good reason, but for some stuff AE is much cheaper and I don’t see the point of giving 30% to a middle man selling Chinese stuff they got of Alibaba on Amazon.

        What I discovered is that they have warehouse in Europe so even though it’s not next day shipping, most stuff take no longer than a week sometime 3 days. I do remember the time when everything took a month or more.

        Their app, though… Designed by a fucking lunatic, and the amount of scammy shit in there is astounding. Like products showing for $3 but when checking the product you realize the $3 is for an accessory and the product shown in the picture cost 20 times that. Most products have 3 or 4 variants which can be completely different items. There are literally no way to easily know what you’re buying without carefully trying to decipher broken English and voluntary confusing description.

        • DJDarren@thelemmy.club
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          3 months ago

          Yeah, the app is batshit and has got much weirder over the past year or so. It’s now rammed full of competitions and ways to waste your time trying to get discounts that you’ll never actually achieve.

          There’s also some really odd stuff on offer on there, which I kind of enjoy finding.

  • unphazed@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Still waiting on a video free version, like I originally ordered… probably $30/mo next year