On January 29, Amazon started showing ads to Prime Video subscribers in the US unless they pay an additional $2.99 per month. But this wasn't the only change to the service. Those who don't pay up also lose features; their accounts no longer support Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos.
As noticed by German tech outlet 4K Filme on Sunday, Prime Video users who choose to sit through ads can no longer use Dolby Vision or Atmos while streaming. Ad-tier subscribers are limited to HDR10+ and Dolby Digital 5.1.
4K Filme confirmed that this was the case on TVs from both LG and Sony; Forbes also confirmed the news using a TCL TV.
[...]
Amazon announced in September 2023 that it would run ads on Prime Video accounts in 2024; in December, Amazon confirmed that the ads would start running on January 29 unless subscribers paid extra. In the interim, Amazon failed to mention that it was also removing support for Dolby Vision and Atmos from the ad-supported tier.
[...]
As Forbes' John Archer reported, "To add a bit of confusion to the mix, on the TCL TV I used, the Prime Video header information for the Jack Ryan show that appears on the with-ads basic account shows Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos among the supported technical features—yet when you start to play the episode, neither feature is delivered to the TV."
Previously on SoylentNews:
Amazon Adding Ads to Prime Video in 2024 Unless You Pay $2.99 Extra
[I chose to pay the $2.99 extra, because why else am I using a streaming service? In the event I feel like it's not worth it, I'll just dump them.]
Related Stories
Amazon announced today that Prime Video users in the US, Canada, Germany, and the UK will automatically start seeing advertisements "in early 2024." Subscribers will receive a notification email "several weeks" in advance, at which point they can opt to pay $2.99 extra for ad-free Prime Video, Amazon said.
That takes the price of ad-free Prime Video from $8.99/month alone to $11.98/month and from $14.99/month with Prime to $17.98/month.
[...] Prime Video subscribers who don't pay the extra $2.99 (and don't just cancel their subscription altogether) are promised "meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers."
[...] With current prices starting at $9.99 per month, Prime Video was one of the cheapest ways to get streaming TV without ads. While the changes put pricing for ad-free Prime Video more on par with its competitors, it may still disappoint budget-minded cord-cutters. Streaming services started off as a cheaper, simpler alternative to cable TV. But as an influx in services, changes in pricing, confusing bundles, and scattered content have proven, we haven't gotten that far from cable after all.
If you're looking to buy a TV in 2025, you may be disappointed by the types of advancements TV brands will be prioritizing in the new year. While there's an audience of enthusiasts interested in developments in tech like OLED, QDEL, and [Micro LED], plus other features like transparency and improved audio, that doesn't appear to be what the industry is focused on.
Today's TV selection has a serious dependency on advertisements and user tracking.
[...] One of the most impactful changes to the TV market next year will be Walmart owning Vizio. For Walmart, the deal, which closed on December 3 for approximately $2.3 billion, is about owning the data collection capabilities of Vizio's SmartCast OS.
[...] In 2025, buying a Vizio TV won't just mean buying a TV from a company that's essentially an ad business. It will mean fueling Walmart's ad business. With Walmart also owning Onn and Amazon owning Fire TVs, that means there's one less TV brand that isn't a cog in a retail giant's ever-expanding ad machine.
[...] Further, Walmart has expressed a goal of becoming one of the 10 biggest ad companies, with the ad business notably having higher margins than groceries. It could use Vizio, via more plentiful and/or intrusive ads, to fuel those goals.
And Walmart's TV market share is set to grow in the new year. Paul Gray, research director of consumer electronics and devices at Omdia, told Ars Technica he expects that "the new combined sales (Vizio plus Walmart's white label) will be bigger than the current market leader Samsung."
[...] 'Walmart has told you by buying Vizio that these large retailers need a connected television advertising platform to tie purchases to," Martin told Bloomberg. "That means Target and other large retailers have that reason to buy Roku to tie Roku's connected television ad units to their sales in their retail stores. And by the way, Roku has much higher margins than any retailer.'"
[...] TV brands have become so dependent on ads that some are selling TVs at a loss to push ads. How did we get to the point where TV brands view their hardware as a way to track and sell to viewers? Part of the reason TV OSes are pushing the limits on ads is that many viewers seem willing to accept them, especially in the name of saving money.
[...]Still, analysts agree that even among more expensive TV brands, there has been a shift toward building out ad businesses and OSes over improving hardware features like audio.
"This is a low-margin business, and even in the premium segment, the revenues from ads and data are significant. Also, the sort of consumer who buys a premium TV is likely to be especially interesting to advertisers," Gray said.
[...] In 2025, TVs will continue focusing innovation around software, which has immediate returns via ad sales compared to new hardware, which can take years to develop and catch on with shoppers. For some, this is creating a strong demand for dumb TVs, but unfortunately, there are no immediate signs of that becoming a trend.
As Horner put it, "This is an advertising/e-commerce-driven market, not a consumer-driven market. TV content is just the bait in the trap."
Related articles on SoylentNews:
Facebook Ad Partner Admits to Listening to Your Microphone to You Serve Ads on What You Talk About - 20240904
Prime Video Cuts Dolby Vision, Atmos Support From Ad Tier—and Didn't Tell Subs - 20240217
After Luring Customers With Low Prices, Amazon Stuffs Fire TVs With Ads - 20231112
The Role of TV Ad Content in Viewers' Zapping Behavior - 20220717
It's Still Stupidly, Ridiculously Difficult To Buy A 'Dumb' TV - 20220416
Vizio TVs Are Now Showing Banner Ads Over Live TV - 20220403
TV Advertising's Watershed Moment: It is Finally Becoming More Like Digital - 20200409
Smart TVs Sending Sensitive User Data to Netflix and Facebook - 20190918
Android TV Users are Seeing Ads after Latest Update - 20190404
Taking the Smarts Out of Smart TVs Would Make Them More Expensive - 20190122
Facebook Wants to Hide Secret Inaudible Messages in TV Ads - 20180703
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Tork on Sunday February 18 2024, @04:05AM (10 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by EJ on Sunday February 18 2024, @04:26AM (2 children)
Meh. Probably just give us a few dollars in digital credits if they lose. The lawyers are the only ones who get paid.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Tork on Sunday February 18 2024, @04:48AM (1 child)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by weirsbaski on Sunday February 18 2024, @11:36AM
Not totally true. For the part that Amazon pays the lawyers, they have to pay actual dollars.
For digital credit to the plaintiffs it either blanket-credits customer accounts (which means subscribers have to stay on longer even if they considered dropping, which is an Amazon win) or worse it gives credit toward purchases made within the service (and what's it cost Amazon to stream an extra "$5" movie purchase? 50 cents?).
I've thought that class-action wins that pay plaintiffs entirely in company-credit should also pay the laywers mostly in company-credit, because clearly the lawyers agreed that credit is acceptable. But there's probably a down-side I'm not seeing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:33AM (5 children)
Fortunately in my case, my subscription was set to renew before they decided to start this shit. I did not renew.
The value proposition was questionable after the last price increase, since the store is not nearly as useful anymore since it's so flooded with garbage products.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:45AM (3 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 18 2024, @09:19PM (2 children)
> I feel like a coward in comparison to anybody who has actually cancelled.
Here's some encouragement to just stop doing business with Amazon, completely--
I've never bought anything at all from Amazon*, going back to the time that they bullied the publisher of my engineering reference book. When the publisher didn't give in, Amazon listed their books as "out of print" which was a complete lie, and reduced book sales. This was back when Amazon was primarily a book seller. They were a rogue company then and I don't see much difference now, so they aren't getting my business.
I haven't had any problem buying things from many other sellers, online and local...and for fun I sometimes check Amazon prices and I'm finding better pricing anyway.
* Some things I've bought on eBay came in Amazon packaging, I didn't realize the seller was using Amazon fulfillment.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Monday February 19 2024, @06:37AM (1 child)
Amazon used to have good prices but now they're almost always more expensive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19 2024, @12:23PM
And the reason they had good prices (on books) was very simple. Based on experience by my small, technical publisher, Amazon bullied the publisher by:
- Demanding a much lower price than the long standing wholesale price paid by any other book seller
- Demanding free returns back to the publisher for books that didn't sell
- Listing books from the publisher as "out of print" (a lie) when the publisher didn't roll over and accept Amazon's terms
(Score: 1) by captainproton on Sunday February 18 2024, @07:33PM
For the little that it's worth, I cancelled my renewal on being presented with my first ad. I hope, but don't expect, that this will result in an overall loss of paying users.
(Score: 5, Informative) by driverless on Sunday February 18 2024, @08:04AM
And another layer of enshittification is added to the existing mound.
(Score: 3, Touché) by sjames on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:27AM (1 child)
Be careful with Atmos. Sure it seems great now, but next thing you know, it's poisoning the entire planet.
(Score: 5, Funny) by EJ on Sunday February 18 2024, @07:52AM
Just the Atmos fear.