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Amazon Splits Prime Video Service To Compete Directly With Netflix (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the everything-is-a-competition dept.

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."

6 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Hopefully They'll Get a New GUI Now by eepok · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:Hopefully They'll Get a New GUI Now by OhPlz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What happened to the days of highly functional web interfaces?

      User Experience (UX) Engineering.

      It doesn't have to function, but it has to have a damn nice drop shadow with rounded edges.

    2. Re:Hopefully They'll Get a New GUI Now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My biggest problem with prime video is that it shows me the free content alongside the paid content with little distinction.. and most of it is paid. I wish I could filter out to only see the free content..

  2. Interesting. by adolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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..
  3. Re:What about geoblocking? by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's really not up to the provided to decide. They don't own (most) of the content, so they are kinda beholden to the rights-holder and their agreements. But please, keep getting mad at the wrong people - the studios like that.

  4. Chromecast support by dynamo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.