Also, this is only extremely tangentially related, but I don’t have anyone else to complain to, so… I think Amazon is nuts to have introduced ads to their Prime material and then demanded viewers pay a special fee not to see them. That’s TERRIBLE consumer psychology. They could have raised their rates and I would have grumbled a bit but paid it. But now it feels like I’m being held hostage for three bucks a month, which makes me feel resentful and unwilling to pay. And the net effect is that I’ve stopped watching Prime material completely. And I might just ditch it for something like Paramount+ or Max.
I canceled them a few weeks ago. I'm working on something about the general decline of the Amazon experience and this was the last straw. I pay money or I watch ads. Not both.
This also made me cancel Prime, which I had been carrying since I was a college student (so, from about 2009). There is nothing I hate more than advertising in something I've already paid for.
This is something that baffles me to no end. The whole point of paying is avoiding advertisements. And I will usually pay to do so. If you don't give me the option I'm not interested.
I think the thing about Prime is they have so many potential hooks on subscribers.
Unlimited photo storage! A music app! Streaming service! Free delivery!
I stayed away from Prime until, I think, 2018, but once you get in their ecosystem it's hard to get out. We have tens of thousands of photos in their cloud, for example.
It really is remarkable how bad every streaming app is except Netflix. Like, how do you hop into streaming a decade late and make an app that's basically useless?
What's been interesting is seeing these studios begin licensing their shows and movies back to Netflix, reversing decision on making their studios into gated neighborhoods where you need to pay a subscription fee to enter.
I think Sony is the ultimate winner of the streaming war. They've quietly licensed out their shows and movies to the big streaming services (sometimes several at once) while never investing the hundreds of millions into developing their own streaming service.
Rather than dump all that money into a terrible app that barely works, they've just been making money with their libraries. Also, hilariously, their competition in the gaming space is Microsoft, a trillion dollar company, that can't seem to win. Microsoft could BUY Sony for far less money than it would cost to compete with them, but instead Sony just drinks their milkshake every day.
Yes this makes no sense to me. It's literally how people will interact with your content. I would probably make it my first priority. But what do I know? I've never lost 5 billion dollars in a year.
Not one streaming service I've tried allows you to change settings by user. It's infuriating.
I want to watch with subtitles. My partner does not want to watch with subtitles. It's a boolean check. It's so simple. Why isn't it tied to each watcher's account?
The worst, of course, is Disney, which does not allow you to change subtitles in the app at all and instead requires you to exit the app to change the TV's settings.
Most of these streaming services also auto-set the audio to 5.1 surround sound. But I don't have surround sound. And the only one that lets you even adjust this is Netflix, which means everything you watch has very quiet dialogue and extremely loud explosions/sound effects.
I had no idea lord of the ring was supposed to be Christian themed, when it came out I went with someone that was religious and I’m pretty sure she called it “satanic” I think it was our last date. Maybe if we’d gone to see left behind things would have ended differently
I loved the article and I have something interesting to add. I was looking forward to Disney's Shogun series because I loved the book, but after the two episodes dropped I felt frustrated with waiting every week to get basically a teaser of what's to come. The schedule for the 10 episodes is drawn out as well till end of April I believe so on my day off after a recent burnout I decided instead to binge watch a new k drama on Netflix. I'll probably be doing that till they drop all the episodes on Disney+. It weird because I really want to watch Shogun but the schedule is horrendous and there's nothing interesting to watch on Disney now that Only Murders in the building is gone.
Fantastic analysis.
Also, this is only extremely tangentially related, but I don’t have anyone else to complain to, so… I think Amazon is nuts to have introduced ads to their Prime material and then demanded viewers pay a special fee not to see them. That’s TERRIBLE consumer psychology. They could have raised their rates and I would have grumbled a bit but paid it. But now it feels like I’m being held hostage for three bucks a month, which makes me feel resentful and unwilling to pay. And the net effect is that I’ve stopped watching Prime material completely. And I might just ditch it for something like Paramount+ or Max.
Just seems like an insane business decision.
I canceled them a few weeks ago. I'm working on something about the general decline of the Amazon experience and this was the last straw. I pay money or I watch ads. Not both.
This also made me cancel Prime, which I had been carrying since I was a college student (so, from about 2009). There is nothing I hate more than advertising in something I've already paid for.
This is something that baffles me to no end. The whole point of paying is avoiding advertisements. And I will usually pay to do so. If you don't give me the option I'm not interested.
I think the thing about Prime is they have so many potential hooks on subscribers.
Unlimited photo storage! A music app! Streaming service! Free delivery!
I stayed away from Prime until, I think, 2018, but once you get in their ecosystem it's hard to get out. We have tens of thousands of photos in their cloud, for example.
Yeah, I mean, look, we’re not giving up the free delivery. 😆 But I’m also not watching their (already kind of lame) Prime content anymore.
That I agree with!
I actually can't think of anything that I watch on prime.
It really is remarkable how bad every streaming app is except Netflix. Like, how do you hop into streaming a decade late and make an app that's basically useless?
What's been interesting is seeing these studios begin licensing their shows and movies back to Netflix, reversing decision on making their studios into gated neighborhoods where you need to pay a subscription fee to enter.
I think Sony is the ultimate winner of the streaming war. They've quietly licensed out their shows and movies to the big streaming services (sometimes several at once) while never investing the hundreds of millions into developing their own streaming service.
Rather than dump all that money into a terrible app that barely works, they've just been making money with their libraries. Also, hilariously, their competition in the gaming space is Microsoft, a trillion dollar company, that can't seem to win. Microsoft could BUY Sony for far less money than it would cost to compete with them, but instead Sony just drinks their milkshake every day.
Yes this makes no sense to me. It's literally how people will interact with your content. I would probably make it my first priority. But what do I know? I've never lost 5 billion dollars in a year.
The other day we were watching something and couldn't pause it.
Which is about the most basic function imaginable!
Not one streaming service I've tried allows you to change settings by user. It's infuriating.
I want to watch with subtitles. My partner does not want to watch with subtitles. It's a boolean check. It's so simple. Why isn't it tied to each watcher's account?
The worst, of course, is Disney, which does not allow you to change subtitles in the app at all and instead requires you to exit the app to change the TV's settings.
Things like this drive me crazy.
Most of these streaming services also auto-set the audio to 5.1 surround sound. But I don't have surround sound. And the only one that lets you even adjust this is Netflix, which means everything you watch has very quiet dialogue and extremely loud explosions/sound effects.
I had no idea lord of the ring was supposed to be Christian themed, when it came out I went with someone that was religious and I’m pretty sure she called it “satanic” I think it was our last date. Maybe if we’d gone to see left behind things would have ended differently
That sounds like a bullet dodged.
I loved the article and I have something interesting to add. I was looking forward to Disney's Shogun series because I loved the book, but after the two episodes dropped I felt frustrated with waiting every week to get basically a teaser of what's to come. The schedule for the 10 episodes is drawn out as well till end of April I believe so on my day off after a recent burnout I decided instead to binge watch a new k drama on Netflix. I'll probably be doing that till they drop all the episodes on Disney+. It weird because I really want to watch Shogun but the schedule is horrendous and there's nothing interesting to watch on Disney now that Only Murders in the building is gone.