Category: Entertainment

Amazon Prime Video Recaps

Amazon uses AI to improve TV show recaps on Prime Video

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

I dislike recaps. Not as much as precaps, which give you a summary of what you are about to see, but still. Whenever they come up, I immediately activate the skip button to get past them.

Amazon is now experimenting with AI to improve recaps for viewers on Amazon Prime Video. The feature, which has launched for Prime Video customers in the United States, is part of the service’s X-Ray feature.

Related News:

Amazon launches the AI Clerk Rufus

Amazon calls the feature X-Ray Recaps; it is designed specifically to help customers who forgot where they left off. While that may not happen when you binge-watch a TV show or season, it may happen when you pause watching a show for weeks or months.

Amazon says:

Prime Video will deliver summaries of memorable moments and important plot points so our customers can quickly jump back into what they were watching or rediscover why they fell in love with a series in the first place.”

I have no idea how well this works. I do not use Prime Video, but it would be interesting to know if this works better than the regular recaps that you get.

Amazon says that recaps are only available for select MGM Studios Original series at the time.

To use the feature, select the recap icon on the TV shows starting page. There you get options to get a recap of the current episode, current season, or previous season.

The ability to get full season recaps could be helpful. The option to get a recap up to the minute you watched the show seems to be missing though.

In the future, Amazon could very well link these recaps to a customer’s viewing habits or purchases. Guesswork.

You may check out Amazon’s post on its About Amazon website for images and additional information on the feature.

What is your take on this new feature? Would you use it or ignore it? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Opera

People love Netflix with ads

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Netflix’s reported strong earnings, revenue, and an increase in subscribers for the third-quarter of this fiscal year.

One of the most important takeaways is that people seem to love the ad-powered Netflix plan. Netflix says that more than 50 percent of all subscribers in the third-quarter selected the Standard with ads plan. Compared to last quarter, membership of the ad-powered plan rose by 35% alone.

The development is not really that surprising, here is why: Standard with ads is available for less than half the price of the Standard plan. In the US, it is available for $6.99 instead of $15.49.

It is all about the price of membership. Standard with ads and Standard offer nearly identical features. The only difference that matters is that some movies and TV shows are not available in the ad-driven plan.

Everything else, including downloads on two supported devices and 1080p streams are identical. So, a nearly identical feature set for users.

Ad-powered plan subscribers pay less to Netflix each month, but they have to sit through advertisement whenever they tune in. This means, effectively, that they pay with their time, as it takes longer to watch a movie or show, as the playtime of ads needs to be added to the total time.

The next couple of quarters

Here are my top predictions:

  • Netflix will continue to see growth, especially when it comes to the ad-powered plan, in the next quarters.
  • Growth will slow down eventually. Netflix may then increase the price of the ad-powered plan for the first time to make up for this or increase the number of ads.

Closing Words

I do not have much use for streaming services nowadays. Most shows and movies that they produce are bland, in my opinion. There is the occasional exception, but this almost feels like winning the lottery nowadays.

This is not a Netflix-specific problem. When I look at Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video, I come to the same conclusion.

I’ll stick to my subscribe for a month every now and then strategy, but it has changed from switching every second or so month to maybe subscribing once or twice a year only for a month.

What about you? Are you subscribed to any streaming platform? If so, is it an ad-powered plan or an ad-free plan? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Steam digital product

Steam makes it clearer that you are buying licenses, not games

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

When you buy a game on Steam or any other digital marketplace, you acquire a license and not the actual game. This has been the case ever since shops for digital games came up.

The same is true for other digital content. You do not buy a movie, TV show, or music album, you purchase a license to watch or play it.

To make this clearer, Steam is now showing the info right when you are about to make a purchase.

Tip: did you know that you can change the install location of Steam games?

How to change the install location of Steam games

There, you find the following information listed:

A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.
For full terms and conditions, please see the Steam Subscriber Agreement

When you check the subscriber agreement, you may stumble upon the following:

The Content and Services are licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Content and Services. To make use of the Content and Services, you must have a Steam Account and you may be required to be running the Steam client and maintaining a connection to the Internet.

In plain old English: you purchase a license to access content. Valve or the companies that produce the content may take away that right at any time.

Note that this is industry-wide and not limited to Steam or Valve. When you buy digital games at other stores, for Xbox, Switch, or PlayStation, or for mobile devices, then you will find similar terms.

While it is rather rare that digital content gets removed, it has happened in the past. Companies who operate the stores may decide to drop specific types of content or rights-holders may pull content from a specific store or everywhere.

Microsoft, for instance, removed ebooks from the Microsoft Store in 2019. In 2009, Amazon removed the book 1984 (of all books) from customer devices, because the rights holder decided to pull it from the company store.

Valve removed games as well in the past. In 2013, it removed the game Order of War: Challenge from user accounts because Square Enix closed down the multiplayer servers.

As a gamer, you only have one option to ensure permanent access to your games: buy physical copies.

Note that the option may or may not work well. Physical copies are on their way out in the long run. Also, to play games, you may need updates or link them on Steam, which eliminates the purpose of owning a physical copy.

Some games may also be sold in stores, but they come with a code only. This code is a one-time use only. Nintendo does this a lot and you may want to make sure that the game cartridge is in the box before you purchase the game.

What is your opinion on this? Do you buy digital games or prefer physical copies? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

In an effort to push ads, Google is now hiding the skip button on YouTube for some

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Reports suggest that Google is testing a new option to increase eyes on ads and the playtime of ads on YouTube.

The latest test targets the skip button in the mobile app and on the YouTube website.

Good to know. Skip allows you to end several ad formats prematurely, usually after five seconds of playtime.

Obfuscation of the skip button is Google’s latest attempt to push ads. The company is also at war with content blockers and third-party interfaces, and the users who use them.

Apart from that, it continues to push new ad formats, including longer playing ads, pause ads, and unskippable ads, to more and more viewers.

Though shall not skip ads, says Google

The latest test obfuscates the skip button on YouTube while ads are playing. A screenshot published on Reddit shows the trick clearly.

Skip is still available, but it is barely visible. If you do not know what to look for, you may not notice that skip continues to be available.

Tip: at least on PC, you can use a content blocker to get rid of ads on YouTube.

I could not replicate this on several devices. It is possible that Google is running limited tests to evaluate the response of YouTube users. Another possibility is that the company is rolling out the feature to all users over time.

Google’s YouTube strategy

Google has two main revenue sources when it comes to YouTube:

  • Ads
  • Premium subscriptions.

While Google continues to test the boundaries regarding ads on the site, it is a the same time pushing Premium subscriptions. Users who are fed up with ads and not tech-savvy enough to use alternatives, may subscribe to Premium to get rid of ads.

Do you watch videos on YouTube? If so, what is your take on ads? Or are you a Premium subscriber? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Amazon Prime Video Ad Free

More Ads are coming to Amazon Prime Video next year

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Most streaming services have two levers when it comes to increasing profitability on the customer side.

  1. Increase the price of subscriptions.
  2. Show more ads.

Major streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon Prime Video introduced ad-supported plans only recently.

These are cheaper, but the downside is that ads are shown regularly. Pricing varies from region to region, but if you take Netflix in the United States as an example, you get the following options:

  • Standard with ads: $6.99
  • Standard: $15.49
  • Premium: $22.99

Netflix increased the pricing of ad-free plans several times already and will likely continue that practice. The service did kill of a popular ad-free plan this year to put even more pressure on users.

Other major streaming services follow the same strategy. Plans with ads have not increased as much, or at all, in the meantime.

Ads introduce an interesting option now for these services. I call it the YouTube-strategy: increase ads steadily to push users into subscribing to a premium plan.

The effect is twofold: you either earn more, because more ads are viewed, or you get an increase in ad-free plan signups, because users hate ads.

Related content

Like Clockwork: Disney+ is getting another price increase

It is possible that some users choose to unsubscribe from a service as a response, but subscriptions increase in number right now, which suggests that the effect is not large enough to matter to these companies.

Amazon Prime Video: more ads in 2025

Amazon plans (paywall FT) to increase the number of ads that users see in 2025 when watching Prime Video. The service is special for several reasons.

  • It is available as part of an Amazon Prime subscription, which offers additional benefits.
  • Amazon is showing ads to all subscribers, unless they pay extra to have these removed.

Amazon follows the same strategy that all major streaming services follow right now. Users will be exposed to additional advertisement to earn more revenue and increase the number of users who pay for an ad-free experience.

Closing Words

You do not have to be a genius to predict that the companies will continue to push ads and increase the price of plans as well in 2025.

This will stop only when the number of subscribers is going down significantly or when enough users leave a free streaming service for another.

What is your take on all of this? Are you subscribed to a streaming service right now? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

If you want to share Disney+, you need to pay for extra member slots now

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Disney announced the rollout of extra member slots option in many regions today. The company follows Netflix’s example, which cracked down on password sharing and introduced extra member slots some time ago.

Good to know: Extra member slots allow subscribers to gift a membership to a non-household viewer.

The details:

  • Subscribers may add one extra member slot to their account.
  • This costs $6.99 (Standard) or $9.99 (Premium) per month in the US.
  • Price varies from region to region.

Disney is also starting to crack down on password sharing. Like Netflix, Disney is starting to block access to its service, if it notices access from a different location.

Viewers may see “This TV doesn’t seem to be part of the Household for this account”. Subscribers do have the option to select “I’m away from home” or “Update household”.

The first option may be used while away from home for a limited period, the second if a subscriber moved permanently to a new location.

Either option requires a one-time passcode that is sent to the email address associated with the account holder.

Also of interest: How to cope with a changing streaming landscape that is pushing ads and higher prices.

It is interesting to note that an extra slot for Disney+ Premium is more expensive than an extra slot for Netflix Premium. Netflix charges $7.99 in the US for that, Disney $9.99 per month.

It is interesting to note that an extra Basic member costs $6.99 in the US, which is just $1 less than the plan itself.

The core difference between Basic and Premium is that Basic comes with ads and lack of Dolby Atmos audio support. Downloads are also not permitted.

Extra members have other limitations:

  • One stream only at a time.
  • One profile only.
  • Access to the same features and content as the account holder.

Closing Words

Sharing Disney+ passwords will come to an end largely in the coming weeks and months. Just like Netflix, Disney is pushing extra viewers off the service. Apart from stopping to watch Disney+, there are only two feasible (legal) options left:

  • Buy an extra member slot, which nearly costs as much as a regular subscription.
  • Subscribe to Disney+ directly.

It remains to be seen if Disney will see a drop and then an increase in subscribers after its password crackdown hammers down on subscribers in full force.

Are you subscribed to any streaming service? If so, to which and why? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Invidious blocked

You can’t use Invidious anymore to watch YouTube videos

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

All publicly hosted Invidious instances are blocked from playing YouTube videos. When you try the third-party solution right now, you receive error messages with no option to bypass it.

Note: this may impact other YouTube frontends as well.

Good to know: Invidious is an open source solution to play YouTube videos on publicly or self-hosted servers. All videos played come without ads or tracking, which is the main reason for users to use the service.

A message on the official repository of the service confirms that Google has shut down the latest workaround that it still had to play YouTube videos on Invidious instances.

Sad news for everyone. YouTube/Google has patched the latest workaround that we had in order to restore the video playback functionality.

Right now we have no other solutions/fixes. You may be able to get Invidious working on residential IP addresses (like at home) but on datacenter IP addresses Invidious won’t work anymore.

The development team is not giving up, but admits that it might take months before another workaround is found.

Users may be able to use self-hosted instances to bypass the block according to the announcement, but there is no guarantee that this is going to work in all cases.

Invididious users who want to give it a try can check out instructions here. Note that this requires a fairly good understanding of the used technologies.

This is not the first time that YouTube managed to break Invidious. The main issue now is that the makers have no workaround anymore to bypass YouTube’s blockage.

While there is a chance that they find another workaround, it looks as if Google has won the cat and mouse game for now.

Have you used Invidious in the past? If so, what do you plan to do now? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Google

You will see Ads now when you pause YouTube on TV

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

If you use the official YouTube TV app without a premium subscription, then you are in for another ad-treat.

Google has been testing Pause-Ads on YouTube since April of this year. These ads show up when you hit the pause button, e.g., to get something to drink or go to the bathroom.

Now, pausing will show an ad on the screen for more users. The following happens when you pause the video while using the official YouTube TV app.

  • YouTube pauses and shrinks the video that is playing so that it occupies roughly two-thirds of the screen.
  • An ad is loaded and shown to the right of it.
  • YouTube displays a dismiss button and an info button next to the ad.

YouTube user RoÆther posted a screenshot of the experience on X:

There is also a report on 9to5 Google that shows another photo and a different ad.

There are other reasons for hitting that pause button. Maybe you would like to share your thoughts with someone else in the room, answer a phone call, or think about what you just saw.

Whenever you do, you will see an advertisement on the screen. Is it a disruptive experience? I’d say it is, as it changes the interface and displays new buttons on the screen. The ads do look static for now, though.

Reports suggest that Google is rolling out the change to more users.

YouTube is not the only platform that pause ads are making an appearance on. More and more ad-financed services may introduce pause ads to increase revenue generation.

As always, users have a few options to deal with ads on the platform:

  • Subscribe to YouTube Premium, which offers an ad-free experience.
  • Use a third-party YouTube app.
  • Stream content from a PC with a content-blocker.
  • Use a VPN connection to a country that does not have ads on YouTube.

Note: another interesting option is to search for the video on Bing Video. You may watch the video there without ads.

All in all, it is clear that ad-powered services are going to push ads harder and harder on YouTube. Google has been testing unskippable ads for instance, which make the experience even worse.

What is your take on pause ads? Would you mind, or is this something that you do not care about at all? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Disney+

Like Clockwork: Disney+ is getting another price increase

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Disney just announced that it will increase the price of Disney+ in the United States again. The company will charge $15.99 per month from October 2024 onward.

Here are the details:

  • Disney+ with ads: price increases from $7.99 to $9.99 per month.
  • Disney+ ad-free: price increases from $13.99 to $15.99 per month. The yearly price increases to $159.99.

Disney has more than doubled the price of its ad-free plan since its launch in 2019. Back then, customers paid $6.99 per month for the ad-free experience.

Disney-owned Hulu and ESPN are also increasing the price of subscriptions:

  • Hulu with ads: from $7.99 to $9.99
  • Hulu without ads: from $17.99 to $18.99
  • ESPN+ with ads: from $7.99 to $9.99
  • ESPN without ads: from $10.99 to $11.99

The Hollywood Reporter speculates that Disney wants to push more customers to a Disney Bundle subscription. It includes the ad-powered Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions for $10.99.

Considering that both Disney+ and Hulu cost $9.99 with ads already, it is “just” $1 extra to get both services. At least, until the next price increase that is.

Disney has not announced price increases for other regions. It is probably only a matter of time before it will announce those.

Expect more price increases from (most) major streaming providers in the coming 12 months.

Closing Words

Streaming services increase prices regularly, and it seems to work. Netflix is gaining subscribers, even though it has increased the price of its subscriptions several times in recent time.

There are only three options available to break this cycle:

  • Subscription-hopping – subscribe for a month or two, watch everything, unsubscribe. Never have more than one active subscription.
  • Buying physical – you may miss out on some shows, but what you buy is yours forever. Also option to sell again or buy used.
  • Don’t subscribe and do not buy media — Might work for some as well.

Are you subscribed to streaming services? If so, to which and why? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Amazon

5 tips to survive Prime Day without going bankrupt

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Amazon’s Prime Day is a major shopping event. Even if you are not an Amazon customer, you may notice that another Prime Day is about to happen when all of your favorite sites suddenly start to list deals.

While it may be tempting to shop at Amazon during Prime Day, it is usually better to play it cool and not fall into the trap of overspending on items that you may not even need or are not the best choice.

Here are five tips.

Tip 1: Prime Day does not mean you get the best price

While news outlets and sites try to paint Prime Day in the best light possible, it is always a good idea to compare the price on Amazon with other marketplaces.

Sites like Idealo or Google Shopping help finding the best price for most products. Other options include searching for the product name using your favorite search engine or searching for items on marketplaces like eBay.

Tip 2: Make a list of what you need before Prime Day

Visiting the Amazon website or app on Prime Day is like being a kid in a candy store. Products with discounts are shown left and right, and it is easy enough to get distracted and add items to the shopping cart because they are discounted, and not because you may need them.

It is a good idea to create a list of items that you need or want to buy prior to big shopping events. I have a list of about 15 items that I would buy during Prime Day, Black Friday, or other shopping events, provided that the price is right.

Yes, that sounds like a lot of stuff, but many are replacements for items that need replacing in the coming months or the next year.

Tip 3: Do not overspend

Regardless of whether you have created a list of articles or not, it is a good idea to set a budget for Prime Day. It is quite easy to overspend during major shopping events.

Before, during, and after you add items to your shopping cart, you will see promotions or other items. It is often just a click or two to add these to the cart as well.

Even if you stick to the plan, you may overspend. Either, because you did not compare prices, or because you opted for something more expensive. Why not buy the phone with more storage, the slightly larger TV, or the video card that promises more frames? Because you may overspend in that case.

Tip 4: Do not rush yourself

Many offers may be limited. Amazon may not have endless stock of an item, and when it is gone, it is gone. While that speaks for rushing and buying immediately, rushing also means that you may not compare prices or may buy items that you do not really need, but fear missing out on.

Even if an item sells out quickly, you may still be able to purchase it at a later point in time. Black Friday is just around the corner, and so are the dozen or so other “sales” that happen regularly online.

Tip 5: Do not browse randomly

It can be tempting to check out a few categories. If you like to play Switch or PlayStation games, you may be tempted to browse deals in those categories.

Browsing may lead to buying items that you did not have any intention of buying. This may lead to overspending and you ending up with items that you may not have researched properly before buying them.

What about you? Do you buy items regularly on major shopping events such as Prime Day or Black Friday?