To expand the reach of Amazon’s original video programming beyond Prime membership, the company has launched Season 3 of The Fashion Fund … with ads. While Amazon describes this as an “experiment” to Re/code, given the level of effort required to update the video player, inject commercials into the stream, and even lock down the sponsors, I’d say it’s a pretty clear indicator of what’s to come. Fortunately, Amazon also indicates “Prime Video will remain ad free.” Except this one. For now.
In pulling up the 30 minute Project Runaway knockoff, which interestingly “airs” weekly, I was hit with three 90-120 second ad breaks in the timeline of three to four commercials, featuring Philips Norelco, Philips Sonicare, Geico, Lilly Pulitzer, and Proactiv.
Hopefully they don’t pull a hulu with this.
Hopefully Netflix can keep their model alive, and remain ad free. I would just hate to go backwards to a time where you can’t skip commercials, and are required to watch a portion of them (or all, depending on how they implement it). I know this is the “free” version, other than that last bit you mentioned, but if I pay a monthly fee directly to the provider of the programming, like Amazon, Netflix and others, I shouldn’t be hit with commercials. I fear the Hulu method of having one price tier for programming with ads and a higher one for no ads.
“I would just hate to go backwards to a time where you can’t skip commercials, and are required to watch a portion of them (or all, depending on how they implement it).”
Have you considered acquiring a DVR? I recommend TiVo for numerous reason, but in your specific case, they have the best ComSkip capabilities.
“I pay a monthly fee directly to the provider of the programming, like Amazon”
Thing is that you’re not really paying a fee for Prime video. You’re paying Prime for the shipping. The video part is a money loser they’re just tossing in to hook you deeper into their ecosystem.
“I fear the Hulu method of having one price tier for programming with ads and a higher one for no ads.”
I welcome the Hulu method! Don’t forget that for 97% of Hulu’s existence that method didn’t exist; you couldn’t get Hulu w/out ads. And thus I never subscribed to Hulu until the higher price tier appeared.
All that said, I expect Amazon to keep Prime Video ad-free for Prime customers. They’re long proved themselves extremely willing to lose money in certain areas on a permanent basis to benefit the business as a whole.
Chucky, I think you misunderstood my comment…
I am a long-time TiVo subscriber (15+ years), and am currently enjoying Skipmode on my Roamio Plus. My comment regarding going backwards was a way of saying that if we hit a model where we are getting force-fed ads through pay streaming services (like Netflix), the DVR would help you not, as those types of ads cannot be skipped or fast forwarded over (and yes, I know that sometimes you get the YouTube-like option of skipping the ad within a few seconds of it starting).
My second point was not so much what is being done now, but what I fear will be done if/when OTT becomes the norm for programming delivery: the providers (I.e., Netflix and Amazon, among others) will charge you your normal fee for content that includes ads, and then provide a more costly tier for ad-free, which can be set at a much higher premium price than Hulu currently charges. So when we hit the point where streaming providers compete against each other, but no longer against the TWCs and Comcasts of the world, price gouging could ensue for commercial-free content.
And I agree that while I currently get Prime Instant Video as a bonus add-on for my Amazon Prime that I pay for to get better shipping, they are beginning to offer more and more original programming. They are also working deals with movie studios and other distributors to be the primary distribution channel for their media. If Amazon’s Prime library grows sufficiently in popularity, it won’t be long before they separate the “free” streaming service from the shipping service, kinda like how Netflix split up the disc and streaming services a few years back. If Netflix wanted to offer a streaming service for, say, $4.99 that included some ads, then I’d be fine with that. My concern would be that the $8.99 tier would become the ad-supported one, and they would offer a $13.99 tier for a no-ad option.
I guess I’m leaping ahead (maybe as much as a decade or more) to what this could mean for programming delivery with or without ad support. I just worry about price hikes for ad-free content, and no real options (that I can see, anyway) to skip such commercials other than draining another huge chunk of the disposable portion of my income to go with the most costly tiers that are offered.
Non-prime members have always had to pay to view the vast majority of content that is available on Amazon, and Prime members have to pay additional fees to view a lot of Amazon’s content. Maybe Amazon wants to expand their streaming customer base, using ads instead of fees for non-Prime content. I personally would be willing to endure a minute of ads in place of paying a couple bucks for each episode of a TV series.
I do hope that Chucky’s guess is correct about Amazon keeping Prime Video ad-free for Prime customers.
/Don
“I do hope that Chucky’s guess is correct about Amazon keeping Prime Video ad-free for Prime customers.”
It really does fit squarely within the normal Amazon strategic operating pattern they’ve been successfully using for many, many years…
They’d still be selling most eBooks at a loss if the publishers hadn’t banded together to stop the practice. (Which was a incredibly Pyrrhic victory for the publishers, considering it has significantly hurt their overall bottom line.)
Ads in a VOD service at that frequency won’t fly for long … bad decision!
We have a Roamio and cannot authorize the newly available HBOgo through Comcast/Xfinity, our current provider. We also have an Apple TV and Roku through which we can access HBØgo but we would much rather have the convenience of accessing everything on one device (TIVO) instead of having to change inputs. Xfinitiy is just about the ØNLY provider not listed on the HBOgo site for TIVO. We waited years before they gave in and let us get it on ROKU. This is ridiculous that you have to have an Apple TV, Roku in addition to a TIVO in order to access all “TV Everywhere” content. I don’t like signing up for a ton of websites in order to post complaints. Due to the insecure digital world we live in, the less presence a person has on the internet the better.