Amazon Prime members: get your streaming video on demand
Amazon just turned on its new streaming-video (commercial-free) service for its Prime members.
While Amazon already has a video-on-demand service, that service is more of an iTunes competitor, with options to rent or buy.
But this new service for Prime members (available only in the U.S. so far) has its most direct competitor in Netflix.
Amazon Prime members receive unlimited, free two-day shipping on many products they buy from the website, and pay $79 a year for the privilege.
As part of that program now, Amazon is tossing in its new video-streaming service, with access to 5,000 movies and TV shows. But that number will surely grow.
Not a bad deal, I'd say.
The video plays on a range of web, TV and mobile devices, but mostly notably, there doesn't seem to be support for Apple's iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, Touch, etc.).
Some speculate that's because if Amazon were to offer an app, they would have to give Apple a 30 percent cut of the subscription.
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Comments
So this means you need to buy a Roku device for $199, plus pay $79 per year just to stream shows online? This is a very high price to pay when you can use alternative online services from websites like TVDevo which offer the same thing for a one time fee and no hardware required, other than your computer.
Posted by: Tracy - Chicago | February 22, 2011 6:05 PM