it is nice that if you pay enough you can avoid ads, but they are definitely coming to all the lower price tiers… and the premium tiers will of course get more expensive over time

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SpaceNoodled an hour ago | parent | next [-]

At some point, the market will no longer be able to bear premium price hikes, and they'll just shove in ads instead - exactly as happened with cable.

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GuB-42 27 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

There is a difference between a streaming platform and cable. Streaming platforms are on demand while cable is broadcast.

To have an ads/no ads option with cable, you need 2 distinct channels with different programming, as you need something fill what would be the ad breaks. With an on-demand platform, there is no fixed schedule, so you can insert ads at will without having to account for that.

So even if the market for no ads is small, it doesn't cost them much to provide that option, and they just have to price it above how much they get from ads to make a profit. Even the seldom used YouTube Premium is actually quite profitable for Google. Streaming platforms won't miss that opportunity.

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lukeschlather an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

HBO never had a tier with ads when it was on cable, it was simply expensive.

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autoexec an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Lots of things didn't have ads on the past (basic cable TV for example). Today the model has changed to being expensive and still collect data/push ads. This isn't a cable vs streaming thing, it's a then vs now thing.

	▲	TeMPOraL 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		True. People forget television itself is barely 100 years old. Business models don't grow on trees, they need to be invented and they evolve along with the technology. Advertising was with us for centuries, but it took until last few decades for it to evolve into a social cancer it is today.

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_DeadFred_ 36 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

That was 80s Reagan/conservative American. Those folks weren't as greedy as modern day companies and they cared about their product/experience, whereas nowadays caring about that is outsourced (see the Mad Men mess) and greed is king.

It's wild to long for the day of 'caring', 'sane', Reagan era corporate 'governance'.

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marssaxman an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

...and piracy will once again become rampant!

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nemomarx an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Where's the amazon prime tier where I don't get ads?

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autoexec 44 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

As far as I can tell there isn't one. Even when you pay extra for no ads the interface itself is infested with them. A truly ad free amazon prime tier wouldn't constantly push shows and movies you that you have to pay for on top of the higher monthly fee you're already paying for or show ads for shows and movies on other platforms.

	▲	TeMPOraL 13 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		They're clever with that, by offering subscriptions to various producers and other streaming platforms within Amazon Prime video UI. The Amazon subscription is very cheap, but then you end up sub-subscribing to SkyShowtime and MGM and Apple Video to get access to your favorite space shows, and suddenly it's cable 2.0. Wouldn't be so bad if the player didn't suck. You'd think video streaming chrome would be a solved problem by now, but it's not, and somehow we're regressing on this front.

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Nevermark an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It is called: Prime Video Ad Free

Go to the Prime Video website, or check your settings in Prime Video on your device.

I have lived a video ad free life for decades. I am convinced video ads do bad things to our brains. In aggregate, beyond any individual impact they may or may not have.

Ad blockers, ad free YouTube, Kagi, … whatever it takes.

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toast0 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Two to five years ago. :P depending on how you feel about their cross-promotions (which are ads, but at least aren't inserted into the content)

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oatmealcookie an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]