On Jan. 29, Prime Video, home of “Reacher,” became the latest streamer to offer an ad-supported tier.
Illustration from THR.Image: Amazon Studios, courtesy of Adobe Stock
Prime Video subscribers who accessed the platform on Monday were greeted with a new prompt: “Movies and TV shows included with Prime have limited ads. You can upgrade to ad-free for $2.99 per month.”
After quickly clicking “Not now,” this viewer was reminded of the second season of the beefcake vigilante drama, one of the most successful titles currently on Amazon’s roster. Reacher. Interrupted. This includes spots from another series (hudson and rex, starring a German shepherd detective) and notice from the folks at Intuit TurboTax that filing season had begun was admittedly limited. But in an era when viewers are increasingly culturally conditioned to dislike advertising on non-Super Bowl broadcasts, even limited spots stand out.
“We fought hard to eliminate commercials,” says Alan Paul, executive producer and director of the Max original. tokyo vice“This was one of the biggest steps in bringing the worlds of television and film closer together, bringing in higher-level artists.” It was a very original gain, but now it’s being reversed. ”
If you don’t want or can’t part with an additional $2.99, $6 (Disney+ and Max), $8.50 (Netflix), or $10 (Hulu) to go ad-free, you may have to ) It becomes common sense. Paramount will expand its own ad-supported tier internationally in late 2024. Although no official plans have been announced, recent hires for Apple TV+ have hinted that the tech giant will eventually introduce advertising as well. Participant dissatisfaction is understandable, especially in a situation where inflation continues unabated. Emotions in the creative community range from apathy to anger, and vary widely depending on where and how you work.
For Paul, whose U.S. platform continues to expand his global influence, tokyo vice It needs to be created in a way that it can be sold to multiple platforms in other regions. Some contain ads, some do not. And while acting breaks (moments of intentional transition in the script that double as natural windows for commercials) are not written with advertising potential in mind, such breaks are discussed with editors in post-production. Paul says they will discuss it.
Many screenwriters still write scripts with broadcast-friendly performance breaks in mind. One of them, Terry Matalas, operated under the following assumptions: Star Trek: Picard While the series is in production, it may eventually move to a platform with an ad-supported tier. His instincts may prove correct if Paramount+ expands its advertising in the coming months. “I hope the showrunners have a say in where the ads run,” Matalas says. [episodes] Please don’t break it in the middle. ”
For the creators who spoke on behalf of this article, it seems normal that there is no discussion about ad placement, and for some it’s a real sore point. When filmmaker Lulu Wang spoke to THR in January, she said she wasn’t yet sure where ads would appear on her expensive Prime Video drama. foreign resident. We are using weekly releases, with the first two episodes of his being released before the introduction of advertising slots, and the remaining four of his episodes being dropped in this new era, with no advertising until the end of filming. Wang said she didn’t know about the possibility. (Amazon announced his plans in September 2023 and finalized phase start dates and prices in December.)
“I’m very angry about that,” Wang said. “If I had known, I would have produced it differently, because this is not a show that has cliffhangers and commercial breaks to make sure people keep coming back.”
David E. Kelley, the golden boy who once impressed viewers on the airwaves picket fence, chicago hope and ally mcbeal before pivoting to premier broadcasters like HBO (big little lies) and Netflix (lincoln lawyer), seem similarly disillusioned. The first season of collaboration with Nicole Kidman will be released in 2021. Nine complete stranger On Hulu. According to his estimation, depending on the viewer’s subscription plan, the viewer will be able to watch two different programs.
“Sometimes it turns the work upside down,” Kelly says. “I thought nine perfect strangers The one with commercials was terrible. We sold it as his one-hour show and it was served like a pie, but it was pudding. You can’t cut pudding into slices, but that’s exactly what was done. ”
Not everyone feels the same strongly.when Wednesday Creators Alfred Gough and Miles Miller have brought the Jenna Ortega drama to Netflix. Netflix is the powerhouse streamer’s most-watched English-language original to date, and the pair incorporated natural ad break moments into the episodes they distributed — more by habit than anything else. “‘Propulsion’ is the word you hear most often in streaming… how to attract people and bring them back,” Goff says. “So there’s no end to the script like there used to be, but the format is there. [producers] M.G.M. ”
Wednesday’The second season of is also written in a similar manner. Miller also said there was no dialogue with executives about where the ads would run, but that’s not a concern either. “If they ask us where the curtain ends, we’ll tell them, but it’s very clear.”
Francesca Sloan, Amazon Prime co-creator and showrunner Mr. and Mrs. Smith, is in a similar situation as the king. She learned about the ad-supported tier during post-production, and on February 2, the first major series under the new subscription model launches. She said nothing has changed about where ads appear.
“I’ve written in the past that other shows have addressed this question,” says Sloan, who has previously tackled the issue. atlanta, fargo and seven seconds. “Nine times out of 10, you just try to write a story without thinking about breaks and hope it doesn’t make too much of a mess.”
Whether they think about it or not, TV manufacturers and viewers are running out of strictly commercial-free platforms. And the streamers who have already made the jump are doubling down. Netflix recently announced that its cheapest commercial-free slots would be “retired” in the next quarter, saying that 40% of all new subscribers opt for ads. After all, advertising is more than just an additional source of income. This is a way to appease Wall Street by increasing subscribers, and cheaper plans will always be attractive to most consumers. “The reality is that most consumers are buying the cheaper tier,” Kelly says. “This is almost worse than broadcasting. Then at least he can use TiVo during the breaks.”
This massive shift away from streaming’s original promise would likely frustrate more writers and producers than it would have if it hadn’t come at a time of deep-seated discontent with the entire ecosystem. While the 2023 strike resolution did bring benefits and new guarantees, Hollywood returned to work plagued by tight budgets, mass cancellations, and fewer green lights. Like many perks of the defunct television boom of the past decade, producing television without worrying about commercial breaks is a thing of the past.
“Eliminating commercials was one of the biggest steps in making television more cinematic,” Paul says. “While I’m willing to pay a few extra dollars to not have them, I know that’s not a luxury that everyone has.”
