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Amazon Cuts Jobs in Prime Video and MGM Studios
- riddley 3y agoThe article doesn't mention that they just added ads to Prime Video with the justification of spending more money on developing content.
- sickofparadox 3y agoWhen have big corporations NOT talked out of both sides of their mouths, though?
- rickydroll 3y agoWhen they talk out of their butts which is frequently mistaken for both sides of their mouths.
- skeeter2020 3y agoCompanies only have a single mouth but essentially infinite assholes.
- epolanski 3y agoOnly shareholders matter, public only matters when it significantly impacts revenue or shareholders.
- surge 3y agoSadly, I keep Prime for the free shipping, the video was a nice ad-on, so I can only be so upset, but it does reduce value of the membership. I still find it offensive to pay to watch ads, I don't care if that was the cable model for years, we finally got away from it and I don't want to go back, no more than I want to go back to listening to the radio or buying whole albums to consume music. I'm getting closer to investing in a nicer media center setup and buying/ripping content I own. Especially since, I've gone Gen Z and find most of my evening viewing to be on various YT channels. If I'm going to spend 22 minutes to watch mindless, low production value, mildly amusing drivel, I'd rather it be by an individual content creator than another semi-reality competition show which seems to be most of what's on streaming platforms these days. I'll watch the odd series/show but I find myself getting bored and not finishing them.
- prirun 3y agoThe ads were supposed to start at the end of January, but yesterday I was watching a PBS Masterpiece show in 2 parts, and when it went from part 1 to part 2, it showed an ad for a sporting event on Prime. I could pause the ad but couldn't skip it & had to sit through the whole thing. As a Prime member, I usually just buy whatever I need when I need it. But now, I think I will leave things in my cart until I get to the free shipping threshold, just to see how often I actually need free Prime shipping. Then I can figure out if it's worth it to keep Prime just for the shipping benefit, because the ads are going to keep me away from Prime Video.
- skeeter2020 3y agoContent (even the garbage that most of it is) is expensive, don't expect more, quality content, they're just making you pay for more of the existing costs.
- kingwill101 3y agoInterestingly prime video had technically always had ads. An ad for other prime video content always plays before the start of anything
- lp0_on_fire 3y agoYeah but those aren't reeeeeeaaally ads they're just "promotions" (according to the Amazon lawyers).
- Kye 3y agoThis + the lack of Stargate news beyond second hand reports from enthusiast YouTube channels is concerning. It seems like all the streaming giants are simultaneously discovering this stuff is expensive to make and not rent out to others for syndication.
- AISnakeOil 3y agoBring back Stargate!!
- OnlyMortal 3y agoKree!
- drcongo 3y agoThey somehow spent $300m on Citadel, one of the very worst shows I've ever seen, and then somehow renewed it despite it getting roundly panned. Weirdly it's got a 6.2 on Amazon owned IMDb despite the vast majority of the user reviews giving it a 1 or a 2.
- runeofdoom 3y agoI always assume the vast majority of show-related decisions (not just at Amazon, but everywhere) are made by executives who base their decisions on C-suite politics.
- hashtag-til 3y agoI had hopes it would be a good series, but (spoiler alert) it isn't. It seems they relied too much on "data" from other series and got it all wrong. Has elements of Homeland and the most cliche conspiracy theories, but not in a good way.
- drcongo 3y agoI'm surprised you made it far enough to see those faults. I didn't make it past the first episode thanks to the abysmal green screening into a set that could have been built for $10k.
- hashtag-til 3y agoI don't judge you - it was a struggle to keep going a couple episodes tbh.
- matwood 3y agoThe only metric that matters and one streamers keep tight lipped about, is how many people viewed the show. Reports are that Citadel had very strong viewership numbers.
- hashtag-til 3y agoDoes it increase the counter when you start streaming or when you finish the episode? That's the real question. (obviously they have more complex reporting than $viewer++)
- steveBK123 3y agoWe are going to see more of this across the entertainment industry. We had a 3-5 year window of VC funded profitless content explosion. Now we are slowly regressing to the trend of low production cost content that has been churned out by ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX/big cable channels for years. It makes sense in a way as there was a brief moment where despite all the proliferation of streaming services, we were still paying less than peak cable days. So less dollars going on on the income side, against more dollars going out on the cost side. We will likely see the streamers continue to raise prices, add ads, and also consolidate...
- oceanplexian 3y agoYou can make great TV shows on a budget, but the problem is they would actually have to focus on story writing and the plot instead spending millions to replicate the CGI generated trash content that passes for Hollywood movies these days
- steveBK123 3y agoThis is why I think maybe NFLX wins in the mid term .. they have perfected the art of churning out mid content with no name actors. Meanwhile the newer streamers are all licensing expensive / paying big name actors / etc to try to create prestige content no one actually pays a premium to watch.
- brandall10 3y agoOof... I guess NFLX knows their business better than anybody, but I'm one of those that killed my sub a year back due to this. It seems there are quite a few of us, but we may be less in number than those who are just looking for any random thing that 'fits' them according to an algorithm, quality be damned. All this said... what did they pay Will Smith again for that horrible sci-fi schlock? I see it's $20M, and supposedly it was going to be $35M for the aborted sequel.
- steveBK123 3y ago
- alienicecream 3y agoDoes anyone have a good explanation to why they continue to produce trash that costs hundreds of millions of dollars? Aren't they just flushing money down the toilet? I'm sure writing a good story is hard, but it's not like it's that hard to tell whether an existing story is good or not, but apparently no one at these studios can do that.
- surge 3y agoI think the entertainment industry hit a bubble of sorts tbh, a lot of writers given free reign to do whatever with no oversight. You can write for a show that is largely panned and still get a second season. There's something else going on that I can't quite explain. But it seems producing things that audiences actually want to watch, or follows basic good writing standards, seems secondary to other concerns.
- jdksmdbtbdnmsm 3y agoThe only millenials who can afford to successfully pursue influential roles in content production are those with inherited wealth, which is a very small few. Talent is simply not very helpful these days, compared with class signifiers like which art school one attended. As a result, people capble of recognizing talent are punished for doing so. Such an equation will always produce bad, decadent art.
- andrei_says_ 3y agoI just tried to watch season 2 of Reacher - the one with the steroid bodybuilder guy. A good story may be hard but a bad story as bad as what I tried watching is not easy either. I am waiting to find out if this whole show was written by a ChatGPT instance fed cliches.
- bearmode 3y agoSo Amazon-owned Twitch makes huge job cuts, they cut jobs in Prime video, introduce ads for prime video users, all within the last few weeks? Is something wrong with Amazon's financials that they're taking more drastic measures?
- disgruntledphd2 3y agoProbably trying to juice operating margins to distract from the capex they are doing that might not pay off for a while (in warehouses etc).
- PKop 3y agoThey have been lighting hundreds of millions on fire producing content that isn't good that people don't watch, because they have ideologues running the asylum with no controls, who don't produce good content nor have good taste nor pick material that is popular but rather checks political boxes and makes their Hollywood friends happy[0]. This isn't sustainable, and frankly it is surprising it has gone on this long. [0] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/inside-amazon-studios-jen-salke-vision-shows-1235364913/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/ins... [1] https://archive.is/f3YPu https://archive.is/f3YPu [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38846097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38846097]
- andrei_says_ 3y agoWhile at the same time adding ads / $2.99 per month additional fee for video.