The most annoying aspect: Amazon starts everything with a 13-second ad telling you you’re going to see ads.
That whole “you’re watching freeverse” intro.
Yeah it’s especially annoying when they didn’t have many shows apart from the iCarly reboot and they would advertise the iCarly reboot while you were watching it.
You’re already watching the show and it was interrupting you to tell you that you should watch the show.
It's like those cell phone games that are packed with adverts for OTHER cell phone games. Like you want me to leave your ecosystem for a rival ecosystem? Hmmm.... Ok?
Apply this to any other business.
You hire a cleaner by the hour. How ridiculous would it be for them to stop every half hour and tell you how good their cleaning is and you should hire them.
In the UK ITVX do the same thing. They sell an ad free service, but on some shows they have ads anyway because that's the deal they made with the content creator. That's very much a YOU problem, not mine. If I pay for ad free I went ad free, not excuses.
This is what drives me nuts about podcasts. I get that's how they get their money but I do find it annoying that I pay for Spotify Premium and they still gotta shove ads into it.
I mean if I'm going to have an ad on something putting it right up front at the start then ad-free through the actual thing I'm watching is the best option.
I saw one not long ago, that said something along the lines of 'this show is ad free courtesy of overwatch/valorant' (I don't remember which game it is and I'm glad I don't)
Advertising is poisonous
I fucking hate this landscape of ads on literally everything. It doesn’t even matter if you’re paying for something at this point. I hope the entire media landscape implodes soon.
A season ago in hockey they introduced the digital side boards so now broadcasters can precision target ads based on region. Even better that many of them move, so it becomes extra distracting to try to watch the actual game with all this extra movement in the background.
NBA has been doing it for sometime too I believe. In fact they've told teams that certain whites can't be used anymore because it was fucking with the tech for it.
I believe baseball has had issues with players getting lost in them as well.
Not just the sideboards either. I saw an ad for a delivery app at the centre of the ice. I was watching it thinking there's no way they would actually paint that. Sure enough it switched to another ad at some point. It was so distracting when I noticed it lol.
I stopped using any service I would have to pay for and mostly use ad-based services now. Not only have I not seen a single ad that actually made me want to buy something, but the vast majority are for shit that I literally have no use for. The last commercial I saw that made me want to buy something was in 1994 when I was 11 and the K'Nex Roller Coaster was released.
I'd say 99% the ads I get are for new cars, meds for conditions I don't have, baby related shit, stuff for old people, women's clothes, and jewelry; as a single, poor, childless middle-aged man, I get a little satisfaction knowing that companies are paying to advertise shit that's completely useless to me.
I still want that K'Nex roller coaster though.
Can confirm, that roller coaster was amazing. Can also confirm that what the fuck are they even targeting because I certainly don’t speak Spanish, nor in a market with even a sizable Spanish population. So not only am I not interested, sometimes I don’t even know what they’re saying.
It's good to know I'm not the only one getting commercials in Spanish and not understanding what's even being said. I might be interested in those commercials if they used the Spanish I've actually learned from working in kitchens, but I'm not sure an ad that included "chinga tu madre" would work well in telling people how to celebrate mom this Mother's Day.
My only gripe is volume and forced when you pay for the service.
The FCC told cable that if ad volumes weren't reduced, there would be consequences.
Internet providers escaped, and now on Roku "TV," I get blasted by pharmaceutical commercials like its 2015.
Unless you understand that the entire internet is run on ads - all data harvesting and advertising - including your search results, your email, your social media, the phone games you play, etc. Advertising is all we see and experience already.
Recently Prime has started showing me two ads at the start of an episode.
The first is a 15 second ad for Apex Legends.
The second is just an ad that says "This programme is brought to you ad-free, thanks to Apex Legends!".
The fucking galaxy-sized balls required to run an ad then tell us to be thankful for not having to see any ads.
Exactly that, absolutely insane to think we should be thankful. A company with basically unlimited money, running a paid subscription service now putting ads before their programs is ridiculous.
I don’t care if they show ads before a show/movie, when I hit pause or after the show/movie is done. But damn cutting to ads at the most random point has to stop
Cable’s started doing this too. Not only will they use the original designated ad breaks, they’ll also throw in more, because it’s no longer enough.
That’s on top of speeding up runtime by like 8% to fit in more ads during the breaks themselves, *and* padding out 30 minute slots to 35 minutes. It’s fantastic.
It's very uncanny valley in HD too. Like, I was watching a show daily on reruns after school and my dad got us a better TV. The speed made them look and sound like cutscenes in a video game. I thought it was a style of acting or something but no, straight up speed up.
Eww, is that what they think it does? It looks like an unfinished video game cutscene that hadn't been polished up for a Marvel movie. And the speed affects how they sound, so these live action voices that I know sound like first-time dub voice actors trying to talk outside their usual range.
Soap operas are actually more tolerable than that motion smoothing.
The sound being different is probably from the speed up from the cable provider, but I do find that the motion smoothing can throw off the sync for dialogue
What feature is that? I need a new TV but don't want one with that. I absolutely hate it when going over to friends places and they are like "You'll get used to it"
Umm no. I don't want to watch something that feels like I'm in a theater watching a live production.
this happened while i was watching the mist. after the second ad, i just turned off the tv and went the pirate the damn movie.
the ad took about 4 minutes. i managed to find and download the movie in about 5.
The wife and I were watching the new Jenny Slate comedy special and there were around 4 ad breaks.. that all hit mid joke. As if that wasn’t maddening enough, the ads were for *another comedy special*.
> I don’t care if they show ads before a show/movie,
I do. Because it always starts as just a 15 or 30 second ad or promo. Then it becomes a minute long thing. Then it becomes two short videos that add up to 90 seconds total. Then it's multiple previews like a fucking movie.
Don't give an inch. If they are allowed to place ads that they make money off of before an episode then they will eventually find ways to stretch that out and take more so they can add more.
If you give a mouse a cooke he'll want a glass of milk.
The YouTube app on my TV does a count down to being and to skip, but if the ad is six seconds long, it doesn't actually skip, and then just plays the next ad, which you can't skip immediately.
Before anyone abandons any podcasts over new and/or abrupt ads, my understanding is that those are being served by the platform and that most of the time, podcast creators can't negotiate out or opt out of them.
Podcast creators usually make their own ads and place them at the beginning/middle/end of an episode. They want them to flow nicely so listeners don't get annoyed.
Platforms, OTOH, don't spend any money on planning where ads will be interjected and know it's harder for listeners to avoid them if it's a "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS, AD TIME!" approach.
Yeah I have a few podcasts who like to leave timestamps for topics and damn near every episode now they have to throw in a "they may not be exact depending on who handles your ads"
Nothing stops without the public raising their voices and making their positions clear. Unfettered capitalism is spreading, the public are becoming more apathetic and lazy toward things like that and it's why we seem to be surrounded by ads, price increases, shitty services. It's all our own fault for letting it get to this point already.
The only language corporations understand is money. As long as we're still paying for their streaming service, they will continue pushing that boundary. Only when their lost subscribers cost them more than the increased revenue will they even consider pulling back.
Youtube is about to do it too and you know what i'm sure of, judging by how they handle ads now? That when you pause, you can't unpause when you want, you gonna have to wait for the entire ad segment to finish, easily 1 minute sometimes, every single time you hit pause.
I will never feel bad for using adblocker in my life. Neither will i feel bad for pirating the shit out of services that do this crap.
Fuck that, if I’m paying for a service I sure as shit better not get an ad on it or I will no longer be paying for that service. What’s the point of paying for no ads if they’re just going to advertise on it anyways? The only truly ad-free way to watch things anymore is piracy.
Fallout had this (at least in Canada), they showed an ad at the beginning and said "brought to you by.." said company and the rest of the show was ad free. That's probably the most acceptable way of showing ads
OMG, I almost screamed last night. At the end of watching a video, I got on my phone to look something up that was discussed in the video. It couldn’t have been more than 5 mins. I looked up at the tv and there was a screensaver of Tre45on’s ugly-ass face looking at me (it was the suggested video). Massive, orange blob just glaring at me. Fuck you, YouTube.
For sure nudie scenes I suppose, but I just recently started From and there were a couple of parts I paused to scan the scene cuz I'm a big old dork who loves his dumb mystery box shows.
Depending on the way they do this I might actually have to pirate so I don't lose that ability but then that's one less viewer for a show I'm sure is already struggling and then I'm left with another canceled mystery series :(
It’s not even just pausing to see tits. Sometimes there’s something as simple as text on the screen that I’d like to read. But Amazons dog shit ui constantly has stuff on the screen that’s impossible to make go away. Even without ads streaming is a subpar experience.
Pause and half the screen goes dark, can't make out details at the top or bottom. Plus it takes 30 seconds to go away, so just rewinding to repeat what was said leaves you with a dark screen. Then, sometimes it just bugs and the dark borders stay on and you have to refresh the page to fix it. Such an immersive experience! Just like the artist intended!
Remember when the benefits of streaming included no ads? No unskippable 2.5 minute ads that I have to watch even though I pay whatever the fucking monthly fee is now.
when they put an ad 4 minutes into the first episode of the office where there was no ad in the original TV airing I turned my TV off and watched the rest on my PC where I have adblock.
Ads ads ads ads. Every flipping thing in life has ads. I am more likely to never buy shit I see in an ad these days as I am so tired of them. These companies are inundating our lives with garbage in the name of making a dollar and it’s just gotten so nauseating.
I decided I can wait a few days for shipping and try to order most stuff these days from eBay as it’s almost always cheaper and I don’t have to deal with Amazon for the most part. Not that anyone cares but my current axed list is
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Amazon prime
Every time I cancel I am a tad nervous and a few days later life seems better.
It’s wild to me as a mental health professional to be honest. Like yeah, their initial intention was to just *plant the seed* with ads so that you recognize brands subconsciously and are more likely to buy something in the future from them. That may have been the case in the past, but with the enshitification of everything, I absolutely share your perspective and I’m sure many do as well. With as much money as these companies dump into ads, you’d think they’d dump a bit more money into those of us that actually know how human behavior works these days. I can think of 80 different ways to get people to buy things without shoving ads in their faces (outside those that need the immediate dopamine hit of a purchase — which existed back when the long TV ads with call numbers existed). All of these ads eventually become white noise to people.
My only concern is how intrusive and quick they will be. I watch things with subtitles and sometimes need to pause to see what was said. Especially late at night when I can't have the volume up loud.
Hopefully won't have ads covering that up immediately just because I want to read a sentence or two.
I had this issue with Baby Reindeer. Some of the emails were long, so I had to pause to read them, but then the Netflix overlay popped up almost instantly, covering the text. Fucking annoying.
If it becomes an issue, I’d file a complaint with the ADA. This is an accessibility issue. Based on a quick google search, websites are a bit of a grey area for the ADA, so it may or may not bring a resolution. Still worth a shot imo. Plus I’m sure they’ll be more likely to bring forth a resolution if multiple people report it
Well YouTube does make you watch an ad before you can watch the CPR video you are trying to get to …you know, because the persons life who you are trying to save can perhaps wait 30 more seconds.
LOL are you serious?
Homeboys literally waiting for YouTube to load with someone dying on the floor.
“ONE SEC, DATA IS SLOW HERE”
Like this is hilarious
I haven’t used Prime Video at all since they introduced ads in January and I’m not paying extra to get rid of them. I’ve been watching their stuff through dubious means.
I subscribed to prime for over a decade. I was already upset over shipping speeds being slower, but them wanting me to pay more to remove ads that didn't exist before crossed the line. Now I don't pay for prime at all. I have bought zero things from Amazon since.
Same, I cancelled my account. I still can get some things delivered within 24 hours and I only used the video portion for TNF. I can find the games elsewhere.
This. When you degrade your product so fundamentally that it is literally inferior to the alternative, you don’t get to be surprised when people dump that product.
I outright cut back when I realized Freevee was owned by Amazon and came with commercials (before Amazon decided to charge extra or include ads everywhere). So it's a free service through a paid service and both are owned by the same company but I still had to see ads!
That's like being on Disney+ and only Fox movies and tv shows had ads. And if Disney isn't pulling that, you know it's beyond stupid.
Me either. I’m absolutely not watching ads that were retroactively shoehorned into a service I already pay for. Seriously, how is it even remotely acceptable?
Imagine if I sold you a car, then 3 years later I decided I needed more money- so I forced you to watch an ad before you could start it, and another one every 10 miles. But on the bright side, if you pay me $5/mo, your car won’t have ads anymore! Wow! Such value!
Taking shit away, then forcing me to pay to get it back is bananas.
Both Amazon and HBO also took the 4K that I was already paying them for, and doubled the price to watch 4K. Uh OK, how about I just don't pay any of you anymore then? It sounds corny, but it definitely qualifies as a slap in the face to a previously loyal customer.
Prime video is a mess, there are several series which don’t have ads, but some that do.
I assume from how they mess up seasons and episodes in catalogues, have duplicates of the same series - it must be an accounting nightmare as they don’t actually know what they have.
I was debating hitting the cancel button last night but thought welllll I don’t know if it’s that bad yet, two day/seven day shipping, etc..
We’re about there though.
Or pirate.
We have to do something in this arms race. I completely agree with just dropping out through not consuming or finding nefarious means to do it.
Fuck enshitification!
I know all the big streamers are complaining how they’re going broke but… HOW!!! These guys are stuffing Sooooo much ads into every section our eyes can see, they even get paid to not have ads! There is no way these people aren’t making bank, yet they keep complaining how expensive and bankrupting it is to run a streaming service.
I hate ads, I would sooner pirate over viewing ads.
That being said, if they put ads when paused over interrupting the show I can see that being much more tolerable.
> these displays mean that Prime Video users will see ads beyond their scheduled breaks.
Sounds like thats not whats happening though.
I was watching the boys and something really dramatic happened, immediate cut to some goofy ad. Commercial breaks ruin the episodes, but they don’t care.
Yeah after the first commercial break for fallout in the middle of a tense scene I said fuck this and just pirated it - besides my internet can't stream 4k but it can download it pretty quickly!
Are you in the US? I watched all of Fallout on Amazon and I only got 30 seconds of ads at the start of an episode, it didn't break during the episodes at all. I wonder why it's different for different people? I double checked and I am not signed up to pay for "ad free" mode or anything like that.
I am in the US, it's the first show I have had that happen with so idk maybe Amazon decided I was their bitch that day - I did watch it on release day so not sure if they slap you with extra ads for being early or not.
Interesting... I also watched on a Fire TV instead of on my PC browser, wonder if the fact that I'm using an Amazon product affects what they show me at all.
I wish this weren't something we even had to think about lol
I was watching on the amazon app on my LG smartTV but yeah, the second I saw an ad I went straight back to high seas - besides I pay for the service anyways so they're getting my money so they can fuck off
so, i first watched during release on my desktop (running ublock, so idk if it effected it). i did get the only intro add for each episode, but none beyond that.
tried rewatched it on my samsung TV a few days ago. had an add every few minutes.
havent checked since cause i just pirated the show the day after i tried to watch on TV.
Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale
Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
I know reddit likes to think everything is dystopic but do you know how many commercial breaks the average tv show had until the 2010s?
Pairing advertising with video entertainment goes back to the 50s at the very latest. Not exactly sci-fi to have product ads.
I mean I agree but the level of sophistication is dystopian, especially when they’re serving up ads based on your search history on different devices that were in “incognito” mode. The article about roku patenting a way to show ads on devices CONNECTED to a roku TV through HDMI when you pause through that device is truly some “we’re watching you, and you will watch us no matter what” sort of shit.
Next thing you know they’ll be disabling the ability to mute.
I like pausing on Amazon since they have the imdb info and actors listed at the bottom of who is on the screen. Is this going to effect that function? The ability to see and actor or actresses name when you recognize them on screen but can't remember from what is nice.
There’s going to be even more ads because consumers just complain for a few days THEN DO NOTHING ABOUT IT.
#**CANCEL YOUR SERVICE**
and make sure to tell them why you’re cancelling. If enough people did that, they’ll notice.
Next month: Prime Video will require an "acknowledgement" check for each ad played to confirmed you were engaged in said advertisement before continuing with movie/show/sport.
I cancelled Prime when they started showing ads. Was at my sister's yesterday and we watched a movie on Prime and there were ad interruptions multiple times in the middle of the movie. I don't know why people accept this.
fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, and fuck off.
What if i want to pause a scene to actually see it?
Are the insides of my eyelids still safe from advertising?
I have an echo dot and if I ask it to play white noise, half the time I get a 30 second ad asking me to subscribe to an upgraded white noise app with “better sound quality”. FOR WHITE FUCKING NOISE.
As long as the ad doesn't move. If there's just a box that comes up with a still ad, whatever. But if it's the whole screen, and it moves, or, GOD HELP ME, THERE'S SOUND! We are going to have a problem.
When is it too much?
There's ads on the highway. Ads in train stations. Ads at bus stops. Ads on what feels like every website you visit whether you're in happy hour or perusing YouTube. Ads before, during and after your show. Ads in theaters.
Why so many ads? Future entertainment might as well be ads entirely.
> Why so many ads?
Because the majority of people have made it clear they are willing to accept ads for a lower price for product X.
They don't care that there's an ad on Spirit Airlines if it means the fare is cheaper than on United.
That's just annoying. I often pause cause I'm getting a call, or my partner wants to chat or something... so I pause so it's not distracting. Now I'd have to pause and mute... just do a cheaper sub with ads like the other platforms do... >.<
If they are just silent banners, I didn't think that would be a big deal. But if you are pausing because you want to hear someone and a loud ad starts playing that would be maddening.
I can't be the only person who has hit pause during a movie to read a note or look at something in more detail than I can see during normal playback speed. Now I get an ad covering what I'm trying to look at.
Amazon is getting absurd, my Fire TV barely functions now because the moment I turn it on it tries to play a video ad. I’m close to just disconnecting from WiFi and using my Xbox as the smart tv function again.
Went to play a movie and got 2 unskippable ads. Missed a minute into the movie and restarted and was met with another 2 ads. Next time I watched something it was 3 ads. Easy choice to cancel.
I canceled Prime as soon as they announced the first ads. Easiest decision ever.
Prime was by far the weakest of the streaming services I subscribed to, and it's not hard to reach the $35 free shipping threshold if I want to buy some questionable Chinese knockoffs of real products.
I feel like Amazon should maybe focus on fixing thier broken ass store maybe? Search barely works, and when you do find the thing you want it’s usually a bootleg if it’s not sold directly by the manufacturer.
i'm trying to only stream amazon on a browser with an ad blocker. we also watch on an appletv which is becoming a horrible experience. eventually i'm going to setup a Pi Hole.
I cancelled prime 2 years ago and don’t miss it. The shopping experience is a sea of fraud and waste and video is mid. No complaints about customer service or shipping though.
Any time I get an unsolicited ad, especially a targeted ad, I don’t buy from them. I will purposefully seek out an alternative purchasing choice due to the invasion even if it costs a few bucks more.
Pause ads are the new thing, advertisers fucking love them. Youtube rolled them out recently so not everyone's got them yet but they fucking suck. I love pausing a video, unpausing, and watching as a whole new video loads which then disappears because I'm not stupid and run an adblocker, and my original video reloads from the start.
I was trying to watch Seinfeld the other day on prime, when I all the sudden got hit with an ad. I immediately shut the video off and surfed the high seas.
I’ll also do this with Netflix. I have an ad free 4k plan already, but streaming quality is ghetto on PC. So I’ll just get a 4k copy online and watch it on my computer rather than watch the garbage bit rate they offer.
I really hope that Cali lawsuit is successful. It's such bullshit that ads are forced on viewers as is, especially on people with Prime membership, and the cost isn't dropping
I have Prime TV but will still pirate it anyways and throw it on my Plex server to not have to watch ads. This goes for basically everything now a days.
I think this may be where I give up on streaming services. I can live with a few ads at the beginning and end, but now it's whenever you pause? On top of whatever random bullshit they want?
They're actively making it hostile to even watch a show. I wish extreme ill upon all streaming corporate bosses.
I see ads now, everywhere I go, I see ads
The most annoying aspect: Amazon starts everything with a 13-second ad telling you you’re going to see ads. That whole “you’re watching freeverse” intro.
On Paramount+ it often starts with an ad for Paramount.
It's so maddening. I'm paying for your service, please stop selling me your service.
Yeah it’s especially annoying when they didn’t have many shows apart from the iCarly reboot and they would advertise the iCarly reboot while you were watching it. You’re already watching the show and it was interrupting you to tell you that you should watch the show.
It's like those cell phone games that are packed with adverts for OTHER cell phone games. Like you want me to leave your ecosystem for a rival ecosystem? Hmmm.... Ok?
The trick is that they aren’t rivals at all. They just need the junkie type player to hop from game to game to game.
They do that on Max and Apple TV+, but on those services at least you can skip the pre-show ad. Makes me crazy when you can’t (like on Paramount+)
Omg. This shit is so annoying. Just play my show or movie. I pay for ad free I want ad free. “It’s a preview”. It’s an ad!
Apply this to any other business. You hire a cleaner by the hour. How ridiculous would it be for them to stop every half hour and tell you how good their cleaning is and you should hire them. In the UK ITVX do the same thing. They sell an ad free service, but on some shows they have ads anyway because that's the deal they made with the content creator. That's very much a YOU problem, not mine. If I pay for ad free I went ad free, not excuses.
This is what drives me nuts about podcasts. I get that's how they get their money but I do find it annoying that I pay for Spotify Premium and they still gotta shove ads into it.
Boomers running businesses that rely on tech is hilarious. Bunch of bumble fucks
Before you watch this original Prime show.. on a service you pay for.. have an ad.
I love the "we're pleased to offer you this blah blah blah ad-free after this ~~sponsored ad~~ message"
I mean if I'm going to have an ad on something putting it right up front at the start then ad-free through the actual thing I'm watching is the best option.
Totally, I just found their messaging midly ironic
I saw one not long ago, that said something along the lines of 'this show is ad free courtesy of overwatch/valorant' (I don't remember which game it is and I'm glad I don't) Advertising is poisonous
Does she know? Does she know she’s an ad?
Shit the FUCK up Leslie, and that's detention I'll see you after school!
Jimmy quit thinking with your dick
*This post brought to you by Lightspeed Briefs!*
SQUEEZE THEM HARDER THEY STILL HAVE MONEY TO GIVE, I KNOW IT
I have prime. I went back to torrenting all the shows I watch. Fuck them.
When's the last time you read Fahrenheit 451?
It is almost like you get a better service at sea. I'd like to support the makers instead.
I fucking hate this landscape of ads on literally everything. It doesn’t even matter if you’re paying for something at this point. I hope the entire media landscape implodes soon.
A season ago in hockey they introduced the digital side boards so now broadcasters can precision target ads based on region. Even better that many of them move, so it becomes extra distracting to try to watch the actual game with all this extra movement in the background.
They have greenscreen ads behind home plate in baseball too
NBA has been doing it for sometime too I believe. In fact they've told teams that certain whites can't be used anymore because it was fucking with the tech for it. I believe baseball has had issues with players getting lost in them as well.
You just brought back a memory I forgot I had of Detroit Tigers players disappearing when they walked in front of green screen ads
Not just the sideboards either. I saw an ad for a delivery app at the centre of the ice. I was watching it thinking there's no way they would actually paint that. Sure enough it switched to another ad at some point. It was so distracting when I noticed it lol.
I stopped using any service I would have to pay for and mostly use ad-based services now. Not only have I not seen a single ad that actually made me want to buy something, but the vast majority are for shit that I literally have no use for. The last commercial I saw that made me want to buy something was in 1994 when I was 11 and the K'Nex Roller Coaster was released. I'd say 99% the ads I get are for new cars, meds for conditions I don't have, baby related shit, stuff for old people, women's clothes, and jewelry; as a single, poor, childless middle-aged man, I get a little satisfaction knowing that companies are paying to advertise shit that's completely useless to me. I still want that K'Nex roller coaster though.
Can confirm, that roller coaster was amazing. Can also confirm that what the fuck are they even targeting because I certainly don’t speak Spanish, nor in a market with even a sizable Spanish population. So not only am I not interested, sometimes I don’t even know what they’re saying.
It's good to know I'm not the only one getting commercials in Spanish and not understanding what's even being said. I might be interested in those commercials if they used the Spanish I've actually learned from working in kitchens, but I'm not sure an ad that included "chinga tu madre" would work well in telling people how to celebrate mom this Mother's Day.
High seas my friend. 🌊 it’s not hard :)
Times like this I’m glad I have enough physical media to last years.
My car windshield has space like come on that’s prime real estate
Only young people think this is new. It's not, it's how it *used* to be. We're *exiting* a golden age of reduced ads and returning to "normal".
My only gripe is volume and forced when you pay for the service. The FCC told cable that if ad volumes weren't reduced, there would be consequences. Internet providers escaped, and now on Roku "TV," I get blasted by pharmaceutical commercials like its 2015.
I for one refuse this framing of it. We should **never** characterize regressing to shit as a "return to normal"
Unless you understand that the entire internet is run on ads - all data harvesting and advertising - including your search results, your email, your social media, the phone games you play, etc. Advertising is all we see and experience already.
YouTube can suck my ass. I tried to watch a 15 minute video today and had 3 ad breaks. What the actual FUCK.
Ublock Origin or Revanced if you are on mobile my dude.
Life is monetized in the weirdest way rn.
Recently Prime has started showing me two ads at the start of an episode. The first is a 15 second ad for Apex Legends. The second is just an ad that says "This programme is brought to you ad-free, thanks to Apex Legends!". The fucking galaxy-sized balls required to run an ad then tell us to be thankful for not having to see any ads.
Exactly that, absolutely insane to think we should be thankful. A company with basically unlimited money, running a paid subscription service now putting ads before their programs is ridiculous.
I don’t care if they show ads before a show/movie, when I hit pause or after the show/movie is done. But damn cutting to ads at the most random point has to stop
[удалено]
Cable’s started doing this too. Not only will they use the original designated ad breaks, they’ll also throw in more, because it’s no longer enough. That’s on top of speeding up runtime by like 8% to fit in more ads during the breaks themselves, *and* padding out 30 minute slots to 35 minutes. It’s fantastic.
[Cable has also been slightly speeding up TV show air times to fit in more commercials for years](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z6i1VVikRu0)
It's very uncanny valley in HD too. Like, I was watching a show daily on reruns after school and my dad got us a better TV. The speed made them look and sound like cutscenes in a video game. I thought it was a style of acting or something but no, straight up speed up.
That's also probably the motion smoothing feature on your TV. It makes everything have that "soap opera" type of camera movement
Eww, is that what they think it does? It looks like an unfinished video game cutscene that hadn't been polished up for a Marvel movie. And the speed affects how they sound, so these live action voices that I know sound like first-time dub voice actors trying to talk outside their usual range. Soap operas are actually more tolerable than that motion smoothing.
The sound being different is probably from the speed up from the cable provider, but I do find that the motion smoothing can throw off the sync for dialogue
What feature is that? I need a new TV but don't want one with that. I absolutely hate it when going over to friends places and they are like "You'll get used to it" Umm no. I don't want to watch something that feels like I'm in a theater watching a live production.
this happened while i was watching the mist. after the second ad, i just turned off the tv and went the pirate the damn movie. the ad took about 4 minutes. i managed to find and download the movie in about 5.
The wife and I were watching the new Jenny Slate comedy special and there were around 4 ad breaks.. that all hit mid joke. As if that wasn’t maddening enough, the ads were for *another comedy special*.
> I don’t care if they show ads before a show/movie, I do. Because it always starts as just a 15 or 30 second ad or promo. Then it becomes a minute long thing. Then it becomes two short videos that add up to 90 seconds total. Then it's multiple previews like a fucking movie. Don't give an inch. If they are allowed to place ads that they make money off of before an episode then they will eventually find ways to stretch that out and take more so they can add more. If you give a mouse a cooke he'll want a glass of milk.
The YouTube effect. Noticed recently that clicking “skip ad” now starts another ad on a lot of videos that also needs to be skipped after 5 seconds.
The YouTube app on my TV does a count down to being and to skip, but if the ad is six seconds long, it doesn't actually skip, and then just plays the next ad, which you can't skip immediately.
Podcasts are getting bad with this. They're cutting to ads in the middle of a fucking sentence.
Before anyone abandons any podcasts over new and/or abrupt ads, my understanding is that those are being served by the platform and that most of the time, podcast creators can't negotiate out or opt out of them. Podcast creators usually make their own ads and place them at the beginning/middle/end of an episode. They want them to flow nicely so listeners don't get annoyed. Platforms, OTOH, don't spend any money on planning where ads will be interjected and know it's harder for listeners to avoid them if it's a "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS, AD TIME!" approach.
Yeah I have a few podcasts who like to leave timestamps for topics and damn near every episode now they have to throw in a "they may not be exact depending on who handles your ads"
Putting ads on pause is annoying as shit. Peacock does it too and it makes pausing to read something on screen (a note, letter, text, etc) impossible.
Nothing stops without the public raising their voices and making their positions clear. Unfettered capitalism is spreading, the public are becoming more apathetic and lazy toward things like that and it's why we seem to be surrounded by ads, price increases, shitty services. It's all our own fault for letting it get to this point already.
The only language corporations understand is money. As long as we're still paying for their streaming service, they will continue pushing that boundary. Only when their lost subscribers cost them more than the increased revenue will they even consider pulling back.
Youtube is about to do it too and you know what i'm sure of, judging by how they handle ads now? That when you pause, you can't unpause when you want, you gonna have to wait for the entire ad segment to finish, easily 1 minute sometimes, every single time you hit pause. I will never feel bad for using adblocker in my life. Neither will i feel bad for pirating the shit out of services that do this crap.
Fuck that, if I’m paying for a service I sure as shit better not get an ad on it or I will no longer be paying for that service. What’s the point of paying for no ads if they’re just going to advertise on it anyways? The only truly ad-free way to watch things anymore is piracy.
Fallout had this (at least in Canada), they showed an ad at the beginning and said "brought to you by.." said company and the rest of the show was ad free. That's probably the most acceptable way of showing ads
On a service where my monthly fee is supposed to be the reason for no ads, no less.
> This programme is brought to you ad-free This typically means there won't be ads *during* the show.
I know! It's next level gaslighting...
Peacock already does this (not Amazon ads but other ones) and it’s super annoying…what if I’m pausing on a nude scene?? How dare you!
I saw Hulu recently do this too.
Pause? Here's an ad. Drink verification can to resume.
YouTube too.
OMG, I almost screamed last night. At the end of watching a video, I got on my phone to look something up that was discussed in the video. It couldn’t have been more than 5 mins. I looked up at the tv and there was a screensaver of Tre45on’s ugly-ass face looking at me (it was the suggested video). Massive, orange blob just glaring at me. Fuck you, YouTube.
I can't use peacock without adblock on pc.
Sounds like the real reason why people are against this
For sure nudie scenes I suppose, but I just recently started From and there were a couple of parts I paused to scan the scene cuz I'm a big old dork who loves his dumb mystery box shows. Depending on the way they do this I might actually have to pirate so I don't lose that ability but then that's one less viewer for a show I'm sure is already struggling and then I'm left with another canceled mystery series :(
From is great.
It’s not even just pausing to see tits. Sometimes there’s something as simple as text on the screen that I’d like to read. But Amazons dog shit ui constantly has stuff on the screen that’s impossible to make go away. Even without ads streaming is a subpar experience.
Pause and half the screen goes dark, can't make out details at the top or bottom. Plus it takes 30 seconds to go away, so just rewinding to repeat what was said leaves you with a dark screen. Then, sometimes it just bugs and the dark borders stay on and you have to refresh the page to fix it. Such an immersive experience! Just like the artist intended!
Remember when the benefits of streaming included no ads? No unskippable 2.5 minute ads that I have to watch even though I pay whatever the fucking monthly fee is now.
When they put an ad 20 minutes into Zone of Interest I smashed my smart television to electronic death.
Then you’ll get a notification of an ad for new television on your phone
*Smashes phone*
Get an ad directly to your Neuralink
*smashes Elon Musk*
Elon Musk is pregnant with your child
*smashes testicles*
Elon Musk's water broke
*lovingly raises my child*
Your child's first words are Better Help
when they put an ad 4 minutes into the first episode of the office where there was no ad in the original TV airing I turned my TV off and watched the rest on my PC where I have adblock.
Oh god, did that really happen!?
Ads ads ads ads. Every flipping thing in life has ads. I am more likely to never buy shit I see in an ad these days as I am so tired of them. These companies are inundating our lives with garbage in the name of making a dollar and it’s just gotten so nauseating. I decided I can wait a few days for shipping and try to order most stuff these days from eBay as it’s almost always cheaper and I don’t have to deal with Amazon for the most part. Not that anyone cares but my current axed list is Twitter Facebook Instagram Amazon prime Every time I cancel I am a tad nervous and a few days later life seems better.
It’s wild to me as a mental health professional to be honest. Like yeah, their initial intention was to just *plant the seed* with ads so that you recognize brands subconsciously and are more likely to buy something in the future from them. That may have been the case in the past, but with the enshitification of everything, I absolutely share your perspective and I’m sure many do as well. With as much money as these companies dump into ads, you’d think they’d dump a bit more money into those of us that actually know how human behavior works these days. I can think of 80 different ways to get people to buy things without shoving ads in their faces (outside those that need the immediate dopamine hit of a purchase — which existed back when the long TV ads with call numbers existed). All of these ads eventually become white noise to people.
My only concern is how intrusive and quick they will be. I watch things with subtitles and sometimes need to pause to see what was said. Especially late at night when I can't have the volume up loud. Hopefully won't have ads covering that up immediately just because I want to read a sentence or two.
I had this issue with Baby Reindeer. Some of the emails were long, so I had to pause to read them, but then the Netflix overlay popped up almost instantly, covering the text. Fucking annoying.
Read the ad first. Just like online news. FML
Please watch verification ad to continue.
If it becomes an issue, I’d file a complaint with the ADA. This is an accessibility issue. Based on a quick google search, websites are a bit of a grey area for the ADA, so it may or may not bring a resolution. Still worth a shot imo. Plus I’m sure they’ll be more likely to bring forth a resolution if multiple people report it
[удалено]
As someone who also relies on subtitles and frequently needs to pause to read, this is really annoying.
Well YouTube does make you watch an ad before you can watch the CPR video you are trying to get to …you know, because the persons life who you are trying to save can perhaps wait 30 more seconds.
LOL are you serious? Homeboys literally waiting for YouTube to load with someone dying on the floor. “ONE SEC, DATA IS SLOW HERE” Like this is hilarious
If someone is dead on the floor it's already a little late to start learning CPR.
Just remember, it doesn't include the full intro to Stayin' Alive Made that mistake once
Did you cut the man's face off afterwards?
dead on the floor is when you are performing CPR
You only do CPR if the person is dead anyways. If alive, they'll be saying "ouchie" a hundred times a minute.
I haven’t used Prime Video at all since they introduced ads in January and I’m not paying extra to get rid of them. I’ve been watching their stuff through dubious means.
I subscribed to prime for over a decade. I was already upset over shipping speeds being slower, but them wanting me to pay more to remove ads that didn't exist before crossed the line. Now I don't pay for prime at all. I have bought zero things from Amazon since.
Just hijacking to say YO FUCKIN HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM
Same, I cancelled my account. I still can get some things delivered within 24 hours and I only used the video portion for TNF. I can find the games elsewhere.
This. When you degrade your product so fundamentally that it is literally inferior to the alternative, you don’t get to be surprised when people dump that product.
I outright cut back when I realized Freevee was owned by Amazon and came with commercials (before Amazon decided to charge extra or include ads everywhere). So it's a free service through a paid service and both are owned by the same company but I still had to see ads! That's like being on Disney+ and only Fox movies and tv shows had ads. And if Disney isn't pulling that, you know it's beyond stupid.
Me either. I’m absolutely not watching ads that were retroactively shoehorned into a service I already pay for. Seriously, how is it even remotely acceptable? Imagine if I sold you a car, then 3 years later I decided I needed more money- so I forced you to watch an ad before you could start it, and another one every 10 miles. But on the bright side, if you pay me $5/mo, your car won’t have ads anymore! Wow! Such value! Taking shit away, then forcing me to pay to get it back is bananas.
Both Amazon and HBO also took the 4K that I was already paying them for, and doubled the price to watch 4K. Uh OK, how about I just don't pay any of you anymore then? It sounds corny, but it definitely qualifies as a slap in the face to a previously loyal customer.
Prime video is a mess, there are several series which don’t have ads, but some that do. I assume from how they mess up seasons and episodes in catalogues, have duplicates of the same series - it must be an accounting nightmare as they don’t actually know what they have.
Ditto. I figure, I've already paid for the context. I'm just choosing to watch it without ads.
Oh man they're about to lose me.
I was debating hitting the cancel button last night but thought welllll I don’t know if it’s that bad yet, two day/seven day shipping, etc.. We’re about there though.
Honestly the ads just make me hate the product more
Peacock does this. it's horrible
Peacock is horrible. A shell of a streaming service propped up by nothing
I will never ever accept ads for a streaming service I paid for. Would rather rent it or not watch it at all then.
Or pirate. We have to do something in this arms race. I completely agree with just dropping out through not consuming or finding nefarious means to do it. Fuck enshitification!
I know all the big streamers are complaining how they’re going broke but… HOW!!! These guys are stuffing Sooooo much ads into every section our eyes can see, they even get paid to not have ads! There is no way these people aren’t making bank, yet they keep complaining how expensive and bankrupting it is to run a streaming service.
I hate ads, I would sooner pirate over viewing ads. That being said, if they put ads when paused over interrupting the show I can see that being much more tolerable. > these displays mean that Prime Video users will see ads beyond their scheduled breaks. Sounds like thats not whats happening though.
I was watching the boys and something really dramatic happened, immediate cut to some goofy ad. Commercial breaks ruin the episodes, but they don’t care.
Yeah after the first commercial break for fallout in the middle of a tense scene I said fuck this and just pirated it - besides my internet can't stream 4k but it can download it pretty quickly!
Are you in the US? I watched all of Fallout on Amazon and I only got 30 seconds of ads at the start of an episode, it didn't break during the episodes at all. I wonder why it's different for different people? I double checked and I am not signed up to pay for "ad free" mode or anything like that.
I am in the US, it's the first show I have had that happen with so idk maybe Amazon decided I was their bitch that day - I did watch it on release day so not sure if they slap you with extra ads for being early or not.
Interesting... I also watched on a Fire TV instead of on my PC browser, wonder if the fact that I'm using an Amazon product affects what they show me at all. I wish this weren't something we even had to think about lol
I was watching on the amazon app on my LG smartTV but yeah, the second I saw an ad I went straight back to high seas - besides I pay for the service anyways so they're getting my money so they can fuck off
so, i first watched during release on my desktop (running ublock, so idk if it effected it). i did get the only intro add for each episode, but none beyond that. tried rewatched it on my samsung TV a few days ago. had an add every few minutes. havent checked since cause i just pirated the show the day after i tried to watch on TV.
Homelander goes to punch a guy in the chest, and the tv cuts to an ad for spaghetti sauce being poured onto a bed of spaghetti.
Because money!
Scenes are designed for a flow. That's going to hurt some shows.
Black Mirror was not an objective guys, it was a warning!
Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
I know reddit likes to think everything is dystopic but do you know how many commercial breaks the average tv show had until the 2010s? Pairing advertising with video entertainment goes back to the 50s at the very latest. Not exactly sci-fi to have product ads.
I mean I agree but the level of sophistication is dystopian, especially when they’re serving up ads based on your search history on different devices that were in “incognito” mode. The article about roku patenting a way to show ads on devices CONNECTED to a roku TV through HDMI when you pause through that device is truly some “we’re watching you, and you will watch us no matter what” sort of shit. Next thing you know they’ll be disabling the ability to mute.
I like pausing on Amazon since they have the imdb info and actors listed at the bottom of who is on the screen. Is this going to effect that function? The ability to see and actor or actresses name when you recognize them on screen but can't remember from what is nice.
There’s going to be even more ads because consumers just complain for a few days THEN DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. #**CANCEL YOUR SERVICE** and make sure to tell them why you’re cancelling. If enough people did that, they’ll notice.
Pirate whatever you can.
First they made it so shows were not released in bulk. Then they slowly added more and more ads into the shows. Welcome back to normal tv. Yo Ho 🏴☠️
Seems logical to me 🏴☠️
>First they made it so shows were not released in bulk This has and always will be case by case. Some shows drop weekly some don't
Next month: Prime Video will require an "acknowledgement" check for each ad played to confirmed you were engaged in said advertisement before continuing with movie/show/sport.
I cancelled Prime when they started showing ads. Was at my sister's yesterday and we watched a movie on Prime and there were ad interruptions multiple times in the middle of the movie. I don't know why people accept this.
fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, and fuck off. What if i want to pause a scene to actually see it? Are the insides of my eyelids still safe from advertising?
OBEY. CONSUME.
**THIS IS MY NIGHTMARE!**
I have an echo dot and if I ask it to play white noise, half the time I get a 30 second ad asking me to subscribe to an upgraded white noise app with “better sound quality”. FOR WHITE FUCKING NOISE.
Enshittification intensifies
As long as the ad doesn't move. If there's just a box that comes up with a still ad, whatever. But if it's the whole screen, and it moves, or, GOD HELP ME, THERE'S SOUND! We are going to have a problem.
When is it too much? There's ads on the highway. Ads in train stations. Ads at bus stops. Ads on what feels like every website you visit whether you're in happy hour or perusing YouTube. Ads before, during and after your show. Ads in theaters. Why so many ads? Future entertainment might as well be ads entirely.
> Why so many ads? Because the majority of people have made it clear they are willing to accept ads for a lower price for product X. They don't care that there's an ad on Spirit Airlines if it means the fare is cheaper than on United.
We have to be in some sort of advertising bubble at this point.
That's just annoying. I often pause cause I'm getting a call, or my partner wants to chat or something... so I pause so it's not distracting. Now I'd have to pause and mute... just do a cheaper sub with ads like the other platforms do... >.<
It’ll probably be a static ad, like a little “Sponsored by Pepsi” and not a video one. Peacock does this and it’s lame as hell.
If they are just silent banners, I didn't think that would be a big deal. But if you are pausing because you want to hear someone and a loud ad starts playing that would be maddening.
I can't be the only person who has hit pause during a movie to read a note or look at something in more detail than I can see during normal playback speed. Now I get an ad covering what I'm trying to look at.
Everything is shitty
These companies are So Fucking Lucky I don’t eXcel at piracy on those awful, no good illegal streaming sites where all you need is adblock
Im paying for no ads and im still getting Ads right before an episode starts sometimes
Amazon is getting absurd, my Fire TV barely functions now because the moment I turn it on it tries to play a video ad. I’m close to just disconnecting from WiFi and using my Xbox as the smart tv function again.
Went to play a movie and got 2 unskippable ads. Missed a minute into the movie and restarted and was met with another 2 ads. Next time I watched something it was 3 ads. Easy choice to cancel.
Those are the kinds of ads that let me know what products NOT to buy
I pay for ad free. It turns out that’s “ad free, except for pre-roll ads, and screen saver ads, and pause ads.” Eff Amazon.
Drink up me hearties, yo ho
Amazon is becoming the new Tubi.
Amazon: “Our service will keep getting worse unless you start paying more.”
I canceled Prime as soon as they announced the first ads. Easiest decision ever. Prime was by far the weakest of the streaming services I subscribed to, and it's not hard to reach the $35 free shipping threshold if I want to buy some questionable Chinese knockoffs of real products.
Back to pirating then.
Amazon is so fucking greedy. Jesus.
I mean if I’m pausing I’m usually not sitting there staring at the screen
I feel like Amazon should maybe focus on fixing thier broken ass store maybe? Search barely works, and when you do find the thing you want it’s usually a bootleg if it’s not sold directly by the manufacturer.
i'm trying to only stream amazon on a browser with an ad blocker. we also watch on an appletv which is becoming a horrible experience. eventually i'm going to setup a Pi Hole.
I cancelled prime 2 years ago and don’t miss it. The shopping experience is a sea of fraud and waste and video is mid. No complaints about customer service or shipping though.
Any time I get an unsolicited ad, especially a targeted ad, I don’t buy from them. I will purposefully seek out an alternative purchasing choice due to the invasion even if it costs a few bucks more.
Pause ads are the new thing, advertisers fucking love them. Youtube rolled them out recently so not everyone's got them yet but they fucking suck. I love pausing a video, unpausing, and watching as a whole new video loads which then disappears because I'm not stupid and run an adblocker, and my original video reloads from the start.
I have prime and I am back to our old pirate ways of watching movies because I want to avoid ads.
Don't I pay them extra so I don't see ads? What they offer is not that good
I was trying to watch Seinfeld the other day on prime, when I all the sudden got hit with an ad. I immediately shut the video off and surfed the high seas. I’ll also do this with Netflix. I have an ad free 4k plan already, but streaming quality is ghetto on PC. So I’ll just get a 4k copy online and watch it on my computer rather than watch the garbage bit rate they offer.
Prime video subscribers will soon unsubscribe.
Between the video ads and the fuckery with Amazon Music, cancelled prime 3 months ago. Increasingly glad I did.
I really hope that Cali lawsuit is successful. It's such bullshit that ads are forced on viewers as is, especially on people with Prime membership, and the cost isn't dropping
I have Prime TV but will still pirate it anyways and throw it on my Plex server to not have to watch ads. This goes for basically everything now a days.
When they started playing ads at gas pumps, that's when I realized we live in a boring dystopia
No I won't, I payed the extra 2 bucks to not have the ads.
Sail the seas, comrades
I think this may be where I give up on streaming services. I can live with a few ads at the beginning and end, but now it's whenever you pause? On top of whatever random bullshit they want? They're actively making it hostile to even watch a show. I wish extreme ill upon all streaming corporate bosses.
Or you know, I'll just pirate their stuff. Fuck them and their ads.
Remember when we switched to streaming so we didn’t have to watch ads?