A few months ago, Amazon started including ads in its Prime Video service. If you don’t want ads, you need to pay an additional $2.99 / £2.99 each month. This does not apply to viewers in Australia. Now, the situation is going to worsen.
Amazon has announced three new ad formats for its service: carousel ads, pause ads, and trivia ads. These are designed to direct viewers from Prime Video to Amazon’s main online store.
The carousel ad format appears during commercial breaks on Amazon. It features a sliding lineup of products that advertisers can display. This ad pauses when you interact with it and resumes once you stop interacting.
Pause ads will show up when you pause a movie or show on Amazon. This type of ad, similar to ones Hulu introduced in 2019 and YouTube added recently, displays products from Amazon’s store. If you’re interested in a product, you can choose to add it to your cart directly from the ad.
Trivia ads will present facts about a product and offer rewards for completing tasks, like purchasing the advertised item.
These ads haven’t started showing on Prime Video yet, but Amazon is promoting them before a major ‘upfront’ event where TV networks sell ad space to advertisers. If advertisers show interest, these ads may soon appear on Prime Video. Whether you continue to subscribe or switch to another top streaming service will determine if you see these ads.
If you have saved your payment and address details to your Amazon Prime account, the shopping ads make it extremely easy to buy products and have them delivered quickly with just a few clicks. This setup doesn’t leave much time to think about whether you actually need the product.
I’ve decided to cancel my Amazon Prime subscription after just one month. I suggest you consider doing the same if you’ve finished watching your favorite shows.
Yes, canceling a full Prime subscription means losing other benefits, but consider how often you use them.
Most people prefer using Apple or Google services over Amazon Photos. Amazon Music is less popular compared to the top music streaming services. You likely don’t use Amazon’s Read library for book recommendations. Many might not even know what Twitch Prime is, or realize they have it.
Next-day delivery is useful, but consider how often it’s actually more convenient or cheaper than just going to a local store. Also, think about how often you’ve bought something on Prime just to make the subscription seem more worthwhile, even if you didn’t really need the item at that moment.
Consider canceling your subscription now. Then, when a new major series is released, or after several have been released, you could subscribe for just a month and watch them all at once. This way, you’ll save money and avoid a lot of annoying ads.
What we think?
I think the new ads on Amazon Prime Video will annoy a lot of people. Having ads that try to sell you stuff while you’re trying to watch a movie is too much.
If these ads really happen, many people might cancel their subscriptions like I did. It’s also a bit worrying how easy they make it to buy things without thinking much. I prefer watching without interruptions.
