I really don’t understand the stink people are raising over Amazon’s decision to begin including ads in Prime video (beginning Jan. 29, 2024).

There will be a $3/month fee to avoid this, but what’s the fuss? Virtually all streaming services have an ad-supported tier along with a higher-priced ad-free tier. There are exceptions – I’m looking at you, Apple+ – but if they don’t have an ad tier today, they will soon.

I’ve pretty much been expecting this for some time: Amazon Prime is for free shipping, the free video was just a perk (and, yes, a hook to keep you hooked).. And at $3/month to nuke ads, that’s not breaking the bank (though I expect that to rise year after year, just nickel and diming us to death). And would I prefer to shell out the $3/month? Of course!

I haven’t looked too deeply into this, but any streaming service that puts ads in their proprietary movies/series is making a mistake – sure, you can stream John Clancey’s Patriot Games here or there, but you can only get, for example, The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime – that’s often why you sign up for one service over another. Again, I don’t know much about this but…