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Amazon Prime Video will start showing ads on January 29th unless you pay extra for ad-free
(www.theverge.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Bummer. Not because of the extra $3, honestly I'll probably just pay it. But because until now Prime programming has been able to operate with a certain freedom. I know 0 people with prime for the video (as opposed to the free delivery) so they were willing to take risks with the shows.
Solos and Tales from the Loop are both amazing works of art that would never have shown up on network TV, or Netflix which would much rather make cheap mass appeal shows with little depth. Even more shows with wider appeal (e.g. The Expanse) might not survive the TV Executive mindset now that they have a reason to care about the number of views as a primary metric, over user happiness.
And honestly, it all baffles me, I will gladly subscribe to a streaming service for one great show. Produce 3 or 4 a year and I'm subscribed for good. If I wanted an endless string of medicore baking reality shows, I'd get cable again.
Ugh yes. I canceled my Amazon Prime like 5 years ago, and swore off Amazon completely until they started streaming Vox Machina. Sucks that's the service Critical Role went with, but it is what it is.
I should check out Tales from the Loop too.... and cancel AppleTV now that Ted Lasso is over.
Appletv has some of the best content out there. They may be the last one standing for me at this rate.
Silo, severance, invasion, foundation, slow horses (though this latest season is pretty meh), for all mankind, and there is another one I'm forgetting.
I think companies like apple and Amazon had?(have) a huge advantage when it comes to their streaming services and content. They don't need to make money on them. They can take risks. They can let a show build. Netflix kills shows too fast. Why? Because they don't have a billion dollar business that can cash flow content that might not be hugely popular right out of the gate.
It sucks Amazon is going down this path. If they put ads I'll pay the $3, but I'm cancelling my music subscription with them to pay for it $10/mo.