I have to pay extra to remove ads from Prime Video
I’d seen rumours online but got the email this morning.
EDIT: seems like there won’t be ads for everyone straight away.
Live events, such as sports, and content offered through Amazon Freevee will continue to include advertising. Customers in the Republic of Ireland, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man won’t see ads in their experience at this time.
I dropped Prime before any of this happened. I was paying mostly for the two-day shipping, which became increasingly longer than two days.
What made me quit it was when I ordered two of the same item from the same seller, but one shipped from the seller and one direct from Amazon. Both were listed in stock. The one shipped by the seller arrived in three days. The one shipped by Amazon had not yet shipped after the first week. I even contacted the seller, who suggested I cancel, but Amazon wouldn't accept my cancelation, so I had to wait more than two weeks for it to ship.
Turns out I was a fool to be paying Amazon all that time for a sub-optimal service. And I've saved so much money ever since when I can't just buy things with free shipping. In fact, I rarely buy anything from Amazon at all anymore.
So this? This tracks with the direction they've been heading for a long time, and it doesn't surprise me one bit.
I've had free prime for years, I signed up for a free trial on an empty visa gift card. Every time I log in, it complains that they couldn't collect payment, but it keeps giving me prime benefits, I'm coming up on 2 years like this.