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Watch Out Netflix, Amazon Streaming Video to Prime Users
ageoffri writes "Amazon has announced that they will include streaming with a subscription to Amazon Prime. The free 2 day shipping on a huge selection of products either sold directly by Amazon or fulfilled by Amazon is already worth the Prime cost. Now add in streaming that works out to just under $7/month and it gets better. Sure the selection isn't that great yet but this has the ability to really change the streaming market!"
We're Amazon and we want to be everything to everybody!
... this doesn't apply to your free Prime membership.
So it's basically Netflix, with the exact same shortcomings of Netflix. I'd gladly pay at least twice what Netflix currently charges for streaming if I could get their entire collection that way. Unfortunately, the content providers haven't yet pulled their heads out of their asses and figured out that digital distribution is the future, so we're still stuck waiting for DVDs in the mail for most reasonably modern and/or highly rated content.
As digital distribution becomes more ubiquitous, more and more people will turn to piracy unless the content providers start allowing more of their stuff to be streamed legally. Hopefully they'll figure that out instead of fighting streaming every step of the way.
Not only works in Linux, but it works *well* in Linux.
Netflix can eat it.
I've a US Amazon.com Prime account. (currently a free trial!)
Just finished watching the "Millennium trilogy" (Girl with..) series of movies
Now starting on Farscape Series...
Think I'd pay the fee for unlimited streaming (Works out at just over £4 a month...) ^_^
Laters Sol "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
Why bundle this with Amazon Prime? Why not just make it a separate subscription service? It feels like the equivalent of bundling a haircut with a tech support service subscription for a Linux distro.
While the library is small they give it away. Once they get a respectable library of titles they'll have a bunch of people who are using it to start charging while they claim "We never said it would be free for ever. You can't complain about something you were getting for free." Base on the amount of users they'll be able to measure what their monthly fee will be (the more popular it is the more they'll charge - up to the amount Nerflix charges - with a discount to Prime users).
but this has the ability to really change the streaming market!
...in the USA (and perhaps Canada?) There still isn't anything close to Netflix or this new Amazon service in Europe. Or at least not that I know of. There wasn't anything like it in Holland a few years back and there isn't now over here in Finland. :/
Here's the secret to immortality:
As a prime member this is great news. If they expand the available titles I plan on canceling netflix. I will make sure I tell them too. I also just streamed a show on my android phone.
It already works on android. Amazon streaming uses flash. I just streamed some top gear on my Droid(overclocked, only to 800mhz). There was a little bit of stuttering but it was watchable. Go try it!
I will also probably test it at 1.2Ghz to see if that gets rid of stuttering.
"Sure the selection isn't that great yet but this has the ability to really change the streaming market"
Really? That sentence right there sums up why engineering types consistently fail to take on the big players in this market.
I think you have it backwards: the "selection" is EVERYTHING. Until a company shows it can make the kind of content deals Apple can with the big content creators, it will fail to gain market share.
The content is critical.
Nor to anyone who currently get free Amazon shipping via a family member who is a member of Amazon Prime. The free video only applies to the single Amazon Prime member account:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200572880
"Prime instant videos require an Amazon Prime membership and are not included with the free shipping benefits provided by Amazon Mom, Amazon Student, or if you are a guest of an Amazon Prime member. To watch Prime instant videos, sign up for a $79 Amazon Prime membership at http://www.amazon.com/primevideos. If you are a member of Amazon Mom and sign up for a $79 Amazon Prime membership, you will lose any additional months of Amazon Prime shipping benefits you may have earned."
Amazon video on demand:
http://www.amazon.com/Video-On-Demand/b/ref=&node=16261631
Subset of "Prime Eligible" movies that Amazon will stream free to Prime members today (2153 results):
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=s9_al_bw_srch?rh=n%3A16261631%2Cp_85%3A1&page=1&rw_html_to_wsrp=1&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1G4XGFTBQHGKXW5S6ZP3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1288998822&pf_rd_i=16261631
It appears that Amazon has a collection of movies/tv shows that are free to stream, and a much larger collection that you must pay $3 to rent or $10 to buy (much like iTMS).
The selection for free instant play seems rather small. In all honesty, this seems to be more a competitor for iTMS than Netflix. I don't pay anything extra to get dvds or stream from Netflix.
I paid $95 for my AppleTV and it just works. I am not sad.
Amazon's distribution center in Reno can hit 90% of the population of Northern California overnight with *regular* UPS shipping. If you order for regular 5-7 day delivery, they pick, pack and label your parcel, and then let it age on a warehouse shelf for a few days. If you pay for overnight or Prime, they don't age it. Amazon Prime is a racket, a profit center, not free shipping.
There are a couple of non-obvious downsides to paying for Amazon Prime.
The first is that it can be a false economy - the expedited shipping is not free, you pay for it up front a year at a time. But since the extra cost is not accounted for in the price of each transaction it makes it harder to comparison shop - it becomes mentally easier to pay a higher price for an item at Amazon rather than purchase it elsewhere because the "total cost" appears to be lower.
The second downside is more insidious - since you've paid up front, Amazon can hold your money hostage. I saw one case a few years ago where Amazon had a dispute with a bunch of fatwallet types - Amazon shipped out 20-30 different products to a couple of hundred customers at a very low price and then changed their mind about the price after the orders were delivered. They told the buyers that they could either return the products for a refund or pay the difference in a second charge to their credit cards. Amazon even went so far as to process those second charges without getting permission.
The people who disputed the charge with their credit cards got the charges cancelled as they were never authorised in the first place. BUT Amazon then "froze" their accounts on their website. The people who had paid for Prime were SOL - sure they had the privilege of expedited shipping on any order for another ~10 months, they just couldn't place any orders. As far as I know, none of those people ever saw a penny of that Prime fee refunded.
While I wasn't financially affected by the incident, seeing how Amazon handled it, I was convinced to never pay Amazon for their Prime service. It isn't a stretch to see Amazon pulling the same stunt with the video streaming - you can stream any video you pay for, but they won't actually let you pay for anything.
FWIW, it also made me think twice about "deals" at Amazon - if they won't stand behind their own system's pricing info, how am I supposed to tell the difference between a promotional discount and a computer error?
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Probably not, since they're at the whims of the content providers. Given that exclusivity == $$$, even when the content is shite, don't expect the current situation to improve any time soon. Same situation as music. If an artist, label, or studip doesn't want digital downloads, checking different endpoint providers won't change the selection.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
I watched for 5-10 minutes, battery still at 90%.
I think he means "It just works ... just barely".
From the Terms and Conditions: "However, if we remove access to Prime instant videos as a Prime benefit and you cancel your Prime membership before you or your invitees have made any eligible purchases, we will give you a prorated refund of your membership fee (even if you have accessed a Prime instant video)."
Only in the fairyland world of marketing is something claimed to be "free" when you are actually paying for it. Please don't fall for it. I'm paying $80/year for 2 day shipping on my orders. Adding the word "free" in there is absurd.
;)
Yes. I also round up prices ending in 9.