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Comment by downrightmike | Hacker News Reader

Amazon recently sent me an email saying that if I wanted to use my Prime Video without ads, like I have had the ability to do for the last decade, I'd need to pay $3/mo. Welp, not going to happen, the interface itself is already an ad after ad carousel. And that drove me off earlier. They need to show what I'd like to see, not what they'd like to sell me or get me to rent something.

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The irony is if they’d have sent out an email saying “prices going up, but we’re launching an ad supported one at a lower price” I’d have been fine. Instead prime got cancelled, and that means I deleted the Amazon app from my phone, which means I’m going to be buying far less from Amazon (probably nothing)

I can't imagine they didn't A/B test which of those statements would drive away more customers. A lot of people would balk at a $3 raise, but only a very few will immediately cancel because of the ads. I expect they'll start with a few ads and boil the frog slowly.

For me one ad is too much. And they’ll be losing far more than my prime fee - I’ve just bought £130 worth or stuff from Argos instead of Amazon because of it.

They want it opt out vs opt in as they make more off ads.

Sky TV shows adverts. Their annual report shows subscription income outweighs adverts by about 10:1.

I don’t subscribe to sky hell I don’t watch ITV but at least that’s only adverts, they don’t try to double dip.

Also mind that even when paying the additional $3/month, it's not completely ad-free, as Freevee content will still show ads.

Is there a reason for that, other than "because we can, screw you?" Amazon owns freevee, right?

It’s an experiment to understand other ways of making money. I also believe freevee is available without prime video.

So don’t watch it, or pay for it.

I was saddened to find a few years ago that some of my favorite shows on playlists were moved from then ad-free prime to the ad-infested freevee (e.g. Allo Allo) - made it a no-brainer to not renew after the year expired.

Max sent me an email that must have thought I was an idiot, and was being all self-congratulatory over not raising prices.

"Plans are changing. But don't worry, you won't be paying any more!"

... but you will get less.

On my plan they reduced the screen count, removed 4K, removed Dolby Atmos.

but for some strange reason they didn't say "... unless you want to keep the same features, that is."

I canceled when I got that email from Max, and I canceled Prime when I received their $3 ad free email. Canceled Netflix last year over the household stuff. I’m really going to save some money in 2024!

Amazon was already being scummy by locking some movies behind their ad service, even if you have Prime (and mixing them in with your normal selection).

This was probably testing to see how people would react, how much they would put up with, and what types of ad formats are least objectionable. I noticed this also and saw it as the writing on the wall.

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