Sunday, July 10, 2022

Give It a Rest, Bezos!

 
by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

As someone who gave up cable several years ago, I now get my televised culture through a pair of streaming services, Netflix and Amazon Prime.  Of the two, Netflix is more aboveboard in its business model:  what you see advertised is what you get.  With Amazon Prime, that isn't always the case.

Prime acts as an umbrella for a bunch of other streaming providers which viewers may subscribe to via Prime.  (And surely Prime gets a nice cut of that action, if they don't already own those other services outright.). The only "extra" that I pay to receive is Brit Box which contains a wide selection of programming from the BBC.  But Prime advertises other programs as if they were on Prime and when one gets your attention and you click on it, you find some notice that it is with another streaming service which requires a special subscription.

Being a fan of the author Tony Hillerman, I recently watched the first episode of "Dark Winds" on Prime and was then told that further episodes would require another subscription to another streaming provider.   Screw that.  Then I came across another show that sounded good, and it was "included with Prime" - a foreign mystery series (Belgian) entitled "Beau Sejour."  There were two seasons with ten episodes each.  I watched the entire first season and really enjoyed the show.  Then, yesterday, I sat back to enjoy Season 2, and yes, it required a special subscription to a different streaming provider!  Screw that, too!  

Forbes says that Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon.com, is currently the second richest human in the world.  With all of that immense personal wealth, I'm puzzled as to why he feels the need to run his flagship business as if it was some sort of Trump grifting operation?

Give the greed a rest, Bezos.  You could learn a helluva lot about being a good human from your ex-wife!

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