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Amazon Splits Prime Video Service To Compete Directly With Netflix (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Starting today, non-Prime members can subscribe to Amazon Prime Video for $8.99 per month. You can cancel any time, you don't have to subscribe to a year upfront. With an Amazon Prime Video subscription, you only get access to Amazon's video library -- no expedited shipping, no music library. When it comes to Amazon Prime, it still costs $99 per year. And yes, it still includes Prime Video. You can also choose to subscribe to Prime for $10.99 per month. You get access to expedited shipping, Prime video, Prime Music, and the Kindle Lending Library. The move is to help the service compete directly against Netflix, Hulu, and other video streaming services. TechCrunch reinforces Amazon's latest move as being in-line with the subscription launchpad they have going with Amazon Prime: "The company can try out new services and see if they work. From day one, these new services will have millions of subscribers. And Amazon certainly spends a lot of time tracking what its users do with these new services."
Are they going to pull the same shit?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Seriously, almost every Netflix subscriber will agree that the Netflix GUI has literally only gotten worse with every new iteration. From removing sort and filter options, to putting too much emphasis on movement and DVD box covers to the sheer amount of resources it takes up, it's been a non-stop cluster. It's as if they want to make it difficult for you to watch something you think you would like.
But still, it's 100 times better than Amazon Prime's interface.
What happened to the days of highly functional web interfaces?
So now, it might now make more sense to get a month of Prime for $10.99 instead of pay for 2-day shipping on a single order.
Which might be perfect for me. I've had Prime before but I don't order from Amazon enough to care about paying for it by the year. When I do order from them it tends to be many small orders all lumped within a week or two as I gather the parts for some project or other.
And if it comes with some streaming stuff, I guess I'm OK with that, although I've been paying for Netflix for so many years I don't even think about it anymore.
Kid-proof tablet..
I hate that the content is getting split between all these providers. I do see my solution as a couple on months on one then cancel and switch to the next one. Just need to subscribe to each one once a year to accesses the latest season of whatever.
Of course they can come up with solutions to mess over frequent switchers.
I view amazon prime video as an added bonus to my prime membership, not a primary feature..
The amount of video's that are not included in prime video makes it extremely unreliable in a sense of "lets watch a family movie tonight!"
All of the Video Streaming services need to get better. If music subscription based services worked like video did, everyone would be back to pirating. With Music subscriptions you get 100% of the library, not a subset of their chosen flavor of the month.
If Amazon offered Prime video service for Android TV systems?
And $107.88 for monthly vs $99 for a year of Amazon Prime? It's like buy 11, get the 12th month free.
Nobody wants to use your video service because of your insistence of making it only compatible with your own hardware. Netflix works anywhere. Which video service would you choose? The established one that's been around for years and works with most devices or the upstart who limits your availability on how you can watch? If you want your service to be successful you have to give people a reason to want to use it.
Now if only Amazon would sell me its 2 day delivery service without all the bundled streaming stuff.
Id happily pay.. $79 for it!
Weird, because I thought Amazon Prime was a better deal than Netflix because you also got free music and free shipping. Something Netflix can't compete on.
But here's how these price wars will play out. Everyone will race to the bottom, and instead of getting a content library that covers the widest possible space, these companies will each try to license the same key content, plus work out a few exclusive deals, plus produce their own contents. The end result is we will all have to subscribe to four or five different services to see the things we want to see.
This is no different than cable TV back in the old days (80s & 90s), where you had basic cable which was a dozen channels, less if you don't count the rebroadcasting of all the local channels, and extended cable for another dozen channels. Then you had all the premium channels where you had to send $5-10 each to Showtime, HBO, Cinemax, whatever. Eventually cable companies were able to repackage these premium channels into bundles, forcing us to buy them even if we didn't want them. But in a way that bundling was cheaper than buying separately if wanted two or three of the premium channels anyways.
History repeats itself I guess. Maybe one day Google will figure out how to give us free TV again through ad revenue. (Cinemax/MAX GO should move over to Youtube)
Amazon Web Services. We can help you do cool and important things. At least until Jeff Bezos becomes aware that you're doing cool and important things. Then, fuck you, you're going down.
They charge the full US Price plus exchange costs on the credit card $149 Canadian and there is no Video Service. I Cancelled before the 1 month trial period and still got billed for the year. Had to waste an hour on the phone with support to get it cancelled.
Canadians be warned.
$99/12 = $8.25/month for Prime including Video
Video alone is $8.99/month
This is only for people who want to insist that they really don't use Amazon and don't need prime, and are bad at math so they don't realize they are paying more to get less.
Cant just open up the amazon webpage in my tablet, no i have to use their app.
And its not the amazon app, or the kindle app, its yet another app.
And you cant get it from google play, you have to download the apk or whatever off of their website, bypassing all sorts of warnings & such.
I fiddled with it for an hour or so & went back to watching netflix.
We use Amazon a lot for Christmas shopping. If we purchase from local brick and mortar stores we still have to pay shipping to send gifts to relatives, and pack other gifts in the car. Having them shipped direct to the recipient makes sense, so we use Amazon for that and each year we calculate whether $99 for "free" shipping makes sense. If we could pay about $10 for one month of free shipping, that would be a good deal to ship all of our Christmas presents.
So now can I have a (cheaper) Prime Shipping subscription without the video and music streaming?
r pay the same price as before and get free kindle unlimited instead of the video streaming
It would be nice if there was anything worth watching on Prime. EVERY movie I have searched for is not available in Prime Video and I am not talking about the latest movies either. Then to top it off, free 2 day shipping does not mean 2 day shipping. It means they will ship it when they are good and ready to do it. I have had multiple instances where I have ordered items on a Monday morning and it doesn't even ship until Friday, then takes till Tuesday or Wednesday to deliver. Contact Amazon through their chat and be told that I should have chosen 2 Day Shipping. Explain that it was a Prime order, with the Free 2 Day Shipping checked and they say, "Well, that doesn't mean it will actually ship in 2 days." No "Hey, we're sorry, someone dropped the ball. We will get that shipped as soon as possible" or anything. Just a bunch of, you should have done it this way or that way. Ask them what exactly I am paying for and they say, get this, "Free 2 Day Shipping and preferred customer status." LOL
Needless to say, I am not a Prime customer anymore.
This might be cool if Amazon would bother to put in Chromecast support, no one is stopping them. Hulu, Netflix, CBS, HBO, and many other streaming vendors have managed to do it. Without that they are nowhere near worth paying for.
Many people miss this in the cluttered Amazon web site, however if you're a Prime member and you sign up for an Amazon Store Credit Card, you get 5% back on almost everything you buy.
Spend $2,000 in a year and Prime becomes free then...
It really isn't hard to spend $2,000 a year on Amazon. Between Amazon PrimePantry, Subscribe and Save, computer stuff, games, etc. it adds up really fast.
We also have an Amazon Echo, and Alexa plays free streaming music, almost anything you can imagine asking for is there. My Dad visited two weeks ago and when I introduced him to Alexa, he thought she was kinda stupid, until I said, "Dad, she'll play you music for free", and he said "yea right, lets hear some Willie Nelson", so I said, "Alexa, play Willie Nelson", and she promptly started playing songs. I pointed out to him that I do not and have never owned anything by him. He was impressed...
30 days of free Prime
http://amzn.to/1U3RCwJ
Amazon Store Card - 5% back
http://amzn.to/1rcXZ5W
Since it's not hard for you to spend $2000/yr on Amazon, could you send me a bag or two of your excess money?
You will have to send back off brand USB cables and chargers that fry your phone--2 day shipping, please.
At $9 a month, that is $108 a year for just video .... while Prime is $99 a year for video + 2 day shipping.
Even if you don't buy a lot at Amazon, it would be just plain dumb to pay $9 more for less.
Two day shipping on streaming video content isn't working for me.
I've done the Prime trial a few times and was never impressed by their video selection.
What riles me about Amazon's Prime Video service is that not only do you have to pay a subscription, but quite often there's a charge for content too, which Netflix doesn't do. A random example - the 15-year-old season 1 of "Six Feet Under" costs 14.99 pounds ($22 or so) from Amazon Prime Video in the UK...and it's only in SD too!
I tried the video service as part of a 30-day free Prime trial and I was deeply, deeply unimpressed with it - not enough free content as I said and a limited content range overall too. Their original content isn't as good as Netflix's either - it simply isn't a service worth purchasing and adds very little to the overall Prime package, IMHO.
I've browsed Prime Video since I got it for free with my Prime subscription and frankly, it's lackluster.
They have a few cool original shows but there's way too much contents that you have to purchase, sorry... rent, on top of your subscription to actually watch. They have a pretty huge library but I need to pay extra for most of it and I'm not only talking about current seasons, a lot of old stuff needs to be paid for as well.
If I'd be paying 8.99$/month I would expect access to the whole catalog, not 1/3 of it.
~Syberz
Of people with no math skills ... or ability to save. .... with one lump sum or pay significantly more by paying per month of a low rate of 10.99 .... :)
You can get amazon prime, free shipping, discounts AND streaming for $8.25/month
But 10.99 is less then 99.00 so it is such a great deal
Awesome, but I already beat 5% without their credit card. Pretty much every year, Chase Freedom has 5% cash back on amazon (for up to $1500 spending), except depending on how you use the points you can actually get better than 5%. So I generally buy $1500 gift cards then. This year Discover also had the 5% back on $1500, except that new cardholders get double cash back for a year. So I bought $3000 worth (my wife also has a discover card with the same offer) and got 10% cash back on it. Every year I get offers from American Express...spend $75 at amazon and get $15 back, or something like that. The discount usually ranges between 20-30% cash back. I've got multiple American Express cards, so I stock up Amazon gift cards when I get those. When it's all said and done, I have more opportunities to buy Amazon gift cards than I actually can utilize, and all are at better than 5% cash back.
Also, even without jumping through the hoops I do, nobody should be getting 0% cash back from their credit card. 1% cash back cards are a-dime-a-dozen, and everybody should have access to one of those. Even 2 percent isn't hard...citi double cash, fidelity amex, now fidelity visa. And that 2% is good everywhere...so everyone should get one of those cards. So really your premium for the amazon 5% card is just 3%. So you really need to spend $3333 at amazon for the prime to break even.
I looked at that credit card. However, if you read the reviews, people are saying that if you don't carry a balance, then, at some point, they are going to drop your credit limit to just above your balance for that month. This results in you having a maxed-out credit card and tanks your credit score. No thanks.
Pretty much every year, Chase Freedom has 5% cash back on amazon (for up to $1500 spending)
That is a good deal, people should of course do that if Chase likes them. :)
This year Discover also had the 5% back on $1500, except that new cardholders get double cash back for a year.
My wife has one of those, we use it for sure. The thing is, all those spending limits are annoying. If you buy a lot of stuff, like we do, the 5% unlimited is rather nice.
Also, even without jumping through the hoops I do, nobody should be getting 0% cash back from their credit card. 1% cash back cards are a-dime-a-dozen, and everybody should have access to one of those. Even 2 percent isn't hard...citi double cash, fidelity amex, now fidelity visa. And that 2% is good everywhere...so everyone should get one of those cards. So really your premium for the amazon 5% card is just 3%. So you really need to spend $3333 at amazon for the prime to break even.
That is all true...
Of course, the $3,333 to "break even" assumes that you place no value on Prime itself. Between the movies and music, the free shipping, etc. we paid for it before the 5%. :)
We seriously buy EVERYTHING from them, including the kitchen sink:
Moen Double Sink - Stainless Steel - $100:
http://amzn.to/1VBjsS4
15 foot Trampoline - $330
http://amzn.to/23IfR9C
Bounty Paper Towels - $25
http://amzn.to/1VBkgq1
Women's Sunny Riding Boots - $35
http://amzn.to/1pemQUT
We hardly have to buy anything, anywhere else. Only fresh and frozen groceries, otherwise it all comes from Amazon.
I looked at that credit card. However, if you read the reviews, people are saying that if you don't carry a balance, then, at some point, they are going to drop your credit limit to just above your balance for that month. This results in you having a maxed-out credit card and tanks your credit score. No thanks.
I imagine that many people are poor at paying on time, so over time their credit limit gets lowered rather than raised.
Then they complain because it must be someone else's fault. The irony of course is that their complaints make no sense. If they don't carry a balance, then the limit would go to zero. Instead they complain that the limit is lowered to the balance. That they claim they don't carry.
---
I got my Store Card a year ago, when they launched the 5% back (March 15, 2015). I started off with a $2,000 limit, which after 3 months and a request was raised to $4,000. About 6 months after that, they raised it to $6,000 without my asking. Two weeks ago, it was raised again, to $17,000.
I never carry a balance, it is paid in full each month. Actually more so, since a few months last year I spent more than the credit limit and had to make extra payments. I pay no interest and get a ton of money back.
If you pay in full each month, then your concerns are moot, since you have no balance to have the limit lowered to. More likely you'll end up with a huge limit. :)
Am a Prime member, but never watch Amazon because they specifically prevent viewing their service with anything but their approved devices. Used to watch it when I could legally do so with XMBC. They fucked over XMBC users. Not really watched them since.
Having had Amazon streaming from its introduction until I didn't renew my last annual a few months back, I have to say there is no real competition between Netflix and Amazon streaming.
Amazon gets almost 0 new stuff and the new stuff they get tends to show up on Netflix at the same time. Amazon shows tend to be terrible. Their exclusives tend to also be less than good, Under the Dumb, Failing Skies, and other horrible trash what was written presumably by special needs dogs who were strung out on glue and pain huffing.
Add onto that their horrifically painful menu and general viewing experience, and you have to wonder what they are thinking.
If Amazon wants to sell its streaming for 2$/mo then maybe but at the same price as Netflix, that is just laughable.
I suppose they can sell you 1 month a year when you binge all the decent new content then drop again for a year.
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I have a Prime account but unfortunately since Amazon doesn't want their video app running on any Android devices except for a select few it doesn't do me any good. I have Google Nexus Player boxes and LG phones. Since they don't support Chromecast either I can't even use that option.