It was only a few months ago that Amazon added ads to its Prime Video streaming service – that is unless you pay an extra $2.99 / £2.99 per month on top of your subscription (Australian viewers are spared for now). Now, it’s about to get worse.
Amazon has revealed that three new types of advert will be appearing on its service: carousel ads, pause ads, and trivia ads – all of which aim to get your from Prime Video and onto Amazon’s main digital store front.
Starting with the carousel format, when you encounter a commercial break on Amazon you might see this option, which allows advertisers to showcase several products via a “sliding lineup.” It’ll automatically pause when you interact with it, and unpause when the interaction ends.
Next up are pause ads – the kind Hulu has had since 2019, and were recently added to YouTube. Rather than appearing when Amazon has scheduled a commercial break, pause ads will appear when you choose to pause your show or film. Amazon’s versions will link to products on its store, and will even give you the option to Add to Cart if you’re interested in buying it.
Lastly, trivia ads will tell you facts about a product, and give you the chance to earn rewards by completing certain tasks – such as buying whatever is being advertised.
The only saving grace is that these ads aren’t yet appearing in Prime Video, but Amazon has been highlighting them ahead of an upcoming ‘upfront’, which is when TV networks sell commercial space to advertisers. And if advertisers are interested then you’ll likely start seeing these kinds of adverts on Prime Video very soon – that is, if you choose to stay subscribed and don’t jump to a different best streaming service.
Is it time to give up on Prime?
Amazon Prime Video’s adverts aren’t just infuriating – they absolutely wrecked the viewing experience of Invincible Season 2 for me when I caught up on the show recently, as every episode had several ad breaks cutting up the flow – they’re also kind of scary.
Assuming you’ve saved your details to your Amazon Prime account (like your payment method and address), these shopping ads present an unparalleled ability for you to be hawked an advertiser’s wears and have them shipped to your door with just a couple of clicks, without the time to consider if you really need the product.
I’ve already decided that I’m canceling my Amazon Prime subscription after just one month, and I recommend you do too if you’ve caught up on the shows you most wanted to watch.
Yes, if you pay for a full-on Prime subscription you’ll lose access to other benefits that come with it, but how often do you use them?
No one’s using Amazon Photos over the more convenient services offered by Apple and Google on your smartphone; Amazon Music plays fifth fiddle to all the other best music streaming services out there; you aren’t browsing the Amazon Read library for your next book recommendation; and most of you probably don’t even know what a Twitch Prime sub is or does, or even that you have one.
Next-day delivery can be handy, but how often is it actually more convenient or cheaper than simply picking something up from your local store, and how often have you ordered something on Prime to simply make your subscription feel like better value – even if you didn’t really need the product right then and there.
Just cancel your subscription now, and then when the next big series drops – or once a few big series have dropped – pay for just a month and binge them all. You’ll save a lot of money, and dodge a lot of terrible, terrible adverts.