TLDR; Oh my god who thought it’s a good idea to put ads in the middle of a movie and then TWO in the middle of a 27 minute long episode of a show!?!?!?

I was watching Fleabag on Prime last night (great show) and there were no ads, everything was going great, and then when watching The Smashing Machine (Safdie) right afterwards I got an ad in the beginning. I think okay, I can still deal with that, standard prime is super cheap anyway here, so it’s not a big problem. However, right in the middle, during a sudden cut from an emotional scene they showed a fucking ad for cars. Wtf.

Then today I wanted to finish Fleabag and on the last episode they made us watch an ad at first, then in the middle, and then about 7 MINUTES from the end! What the actual fuck?

Anyway I’m cancelling my prime sub asap and just pirating this shit at least the ads don’t show up in the middle (or at all with Adblock obviously). Fucking hell.

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    FYI ad-free prime is a seperate $5/month. 4K is also gated behind that, now.

    https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/entertainment/prime-video-ultra-ad-free-streaming-subscription

    It was always going to be this way… bundling streaming with Prime shipping was a temporary “gateway drug” from the start.

    TBH it’s not terrible if you just subscribe for something specific then cancel…

    But the Prime video player drops frames for me, on brand new hardware across multiple platforms. Sometimes it crashes or won’t start. So I find myself “watching via other means” anyway.

  • paper_moon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    5 days ago

    I stopped giving them my money when they helped overthrow democracy. Just acquire their content overseas…

    • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      Yep. They could have rolled in money, and kept buying yachts, but they decided to make it personal. I guess it’s for the best. I’ve come to understand that the systemic abuse was already in play, but avoiding my notice, before.

  • mustlovehuskies@lemmy.todayEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    Yeah that’s one of several reasons I host my own plex server, I control my content and don’t have ads shoved in anywhere. Jellyfin also a great option if I wasn’t sharing with friends who wouldn’t be able to use it remotely as easily.

    The experience pirating is superior to the paid options now too, smoother and easier to navigate - none of this random series of categories with low budget crap I don’t want, but the algorithm thinks is the only thing I’m interested in so 1000 iterations of horror sci fi it is.

  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    5·
    4 days ago

    It’s fucking infuriating. I’ve started muting the TV, but I’ve been considering just torrenting the shows instead.

    They don’t even bother timing the breaks with when a scene ends like they used to do on cable. They’ll just straight up interrupt the show in the middle of dialogue.

    • funksoulkitchen@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      30 minute TV shows were structured as 3 acts for this reason. Thats why ads in movies on TV felt poorly times as it was written with a break in mind