It seems that, more often than not, the rumor mill gets it right -- case in point, that recent rumor swirling around that Amazon would soon take on Netflix by offering unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows for Prime members at no extra charge.
Amazon.com announced on Tuesday that their Amazon Prime members have another reason to celebrate. In addition to their free two-day shipping benefits, Prime members will now get unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows as part of their annual $79 subscription.
The move is clearly a shot across the bow at Netflix and Hulu Plus, who recently rolled out $7.99 per month streaming packages for their customers. At only $79 per year, Amazon’s new Instant Video plan (formerly Amazon Video on Demand) is a better value compared to the others, which cost nearly $96 per year -- not to mention, your Amazon Prime membership gives you unlimited two-day shipping to boot.
“Millions of people are already Amazon Prime members and enjoy unlimited free two-day shipping. Today, we’re excited to add a brand new benefit to Amazon Prime: unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows,” founder and CEO Jeff Bezos announced on the Amazon website Tuesday. “Prime will continue to be $79 per year -- this new benefit is being added at no additional cost.”
Among the initial selections in Amazon Instant Video are recent releases such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy as well as documentaries such as Food, Inc. and TV classic shows such as Doctor Who and Farscape.
Perhaps the only downside to Amazon’s move is that it leaves out a large swath of Prime members -- namely students and parents enjoying their respective free Prime memberships, who will be offered a screen such as the one above to encourage them to upgrade to the paid $79 per year Prime to get access to free streaming.
While Amazon Instant Video is available from any Mac or PC as well as nearly 200 models of Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes, there’s still no iOS app for enjoying your content on the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad -- though we suspect that will likely be addressed soon enough, assuming the e-tailer can circumvent Apple’s new in-app subscription rules.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
BigDaddy54
February 22, 2011 at 10:30am
I would only be interested on new releases, so I got a Tivo and tried Amazon Video on Demand. The movie would not play until fully downloaded. Not sure if that's the norm but it turned me off for future use, rather use the Apple TV.
ToddPeperkorn
February 22, 2011 at 10:11am
What a ridiculously lame selection. A cursory look showed nearly everything is from the 50s and 60s! When they are ready to do real licensing, then they will be ready for PRIME time.
