Amazon is, unfortunately, always coming up with new ways to show you ads on its Fire TV devices, but this new method takes the cake. Starting later this year, Amazon will begin to display an ad before its Freevee app even gets a chance to load. As demonstrated in the video above, launching Freevee on Fire TV devices will soon result in a 7-second video ad being played before the app’s home screen loads. This takes the annoyance of pre-roll ads to a whole new level since your attention is being milked for a profit before you even decide if there’s anything worth watching in the app.
Amazon is calling these ads “Freevee Welcome Screen” ads and doesn’t mention them being used in any other app except Freevee, it’s fully ad-supported streaming service which was formerly named IMDb TV. It seems as though only Fire TV users will be seeing these new ads, at least initially, even though the Freevee app is available on most streaming and mobile devices. Launching Freevee on a Fire TV today takes about 3-4 seconds, so these 7-second ads will roughly double the app’s loading time in a best-case scenario where the ads are pre-downloaded so that they can load instantly. Amazon says the ads are being tested in a closed beta right now but expects to launch them in an open beta “later this year” which, presumably, means regular Fire TV users will begin seeing them at that time. Amazon already has advertisers lined up for the new ads, including Dell, Lincoln, and Smartwater.
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Great, another layer for this messy app to try to preload before resuming my random episode of Columbo or whatever. App has been a MESS on FireTV since it dropped. IMDbTV been intergrated right in was always flawless. I never minded the ads because everything worked.
Hope this is just for freevee, and they do not start adding these to tubi, plex, etc..
Why is anyone surprised?
For the viewers who either want (or forced budgetwise) free content? You’re a captive audience. If that 7 seconds can be monetized, It’ll be monetized.
I’m pissed at Amazon Prime and Par+ for doing their quick little promos, even though I pay for the commercial free version of Par+. I’m not worried about missing the “unprecedented values” on some foam mattress with a name of just a color or whatever.
Geez. One more reason to never use that app. You’d think they want to entice more people to want to use it.
They reduce the quality of the user experience (IMDB TV vs FreeVee), then put in more ADs as the cherry on top.
I used to watch some content on IMDB TV, but I very rarely even load the FreeVee app. Amazon, are you listening?
it’s an ad-supported app/channel/service…why is anyone surprised by this?
Well it is like buying any service only to have the provider change the terms/conditions at will. I do everything possible to not watch social engineering ads repeated ad nauseam. That is why I canceled cable TV as I was paying to be forced to watch ads.
That sure clinches it. NO WAY am I loading that app now. I pay extra to get rid of ads. If the only way to see something is with ads, I won’t watch it.
If Amazon starts doing that with other apps, they’ll be removed immediately. The only thing I’ve heard so far about ads that is less annoying – maybe – is the product placement ads within scenes of shows. I haven’t noticed any yet but if that’s done right it’ll be OK. If the product placement takes any focus away from the scene, then I’ll either watch the show somewhere else or not watch it.
Today 5 seconds of an ad on startup. Tomorrow, 30 seconds of ads.
It is ‘free’ (in the ‘FAST’ sense), but the only reason I never use IMDBTV (now Freevee) is because of the ads being ungracefully stuck into content (ie movies) that was never meant to include ads. I will be curious as to whether this change breaks the proverbial camel’s back of current viewers that have been ok with the current ad load on this service.
I only fear that this practice will become more pervasive in the Amazon ecosystem. Why would I not be surprised to see a 10 second “welcome screen” advisement when rebooting my device?
Not only are the quantity of ads bothersome, but the ads themselves are extremely annoying. This Progressive insurance ads habe ti win the prize for most nails on a blackboard. Followed by a close second are the Liberty, Liberty, Liberty (sing it with me) ads.
Now, we’ll have to endure another one even before the show even gets started. Ugh.
I do everything possible to avoid social engineering ads repeated ad nauseam. That is why I dropped Cable TV as I was paying to be insulted by ads with a social engineering agenda. The social misfits of the world are trying to make us believe we are wrong. Ad blockers and streaming ad free content is the only sane way to go until the ad agencies are pushed into bankruptcy.