Amazon Video Goes Monthly
April 18, 2016 8:52 AM Subscribe
Amazon Prime started as a way for frequent shoppers to get free shipping, but morphed into a video- and music-streaming service, offering up such acclaimed original fare as Transparent and The Man in the High Castle. Amazon announced this week that it would separate the video streaming from the shipping, offering month-by-month subscription rates for just video streaming as well as the complete Prime package.
Getting just the video streaming will run $8.99 per month (as opposed to the $99 per year Prime subscription, which works out to $8.25 a month), while a month of full Prime services will go for $10.99. The intent seems to be luring people in for free shipping around Christmas or to binge a TV series, and then them either wanting to stick around or just forgetting about the subscription. Or it may just be to "anchor" the price of the annual program against a higher-priced monthly alternative.
Getting just the video streaming will run $8.99 per month (as opposed to the $99 per year Prime subscription, which works out to $8.25 a month), while a month of full Prime services will go for $10.99. The intent seems to be luring people in for free shipping around Christmas or to binge a TV series, and then them either wanting to stick around or just forgetting about the subscription. Or it may just be to "anchor" the price of the annual program against a higher-priced monthly alternative.
This post was deleted for the following reason: The splitting move is interesting and I get the basic impetus here of wanting to note and talk about a big move by a major company, but there's not much there there with the current framing; maybe give this another go in a couple days once there's a little more critical discussion to build a post out of. -- cortex
Prime also gets you unlimited photo storage; something they otherwise charge $12 a year for otherwise. The latter is IMO a crazy good deal.
posted by Mitheral at 9:19 AM on April 18, 2016
posted by Mitheral at 9:19 AM on April 18, 2016
Thanks Amazon.com for these different ways of paying you money, so thoughtful! In a year they'll introduce a separate "Prime *Plus" and act like that's some great favor.
posted by Locobot at 9:19 AM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Locobot at 9:19 AM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
Pepsi Blue?
Not really. Netflix is basically a utility for a lot of people, so this is kind of a big deal. Amazon is repositioning themselves from a company that ships physical items and will give you access to a kinda halfassed version of Netflix for free, to a Netflix competitor that will give you a break on physical shipping for an extra couple bucks a month. The annual lump sum payment for Prime is off-putting to many, I would guess, especially since the streaming video component seems like Netflix But Not So Much. If Amazon puts more of a push behind its original programming (they have Transparent, but this is literally the only Amazon show anyone likes enough to talk about), Netflix could be in trouble.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:21 AM on April 18, 2016
Not really. Netflix is basically a utility for a lot of people, so this is kind of a big deal. Amazon is repositioning themselves from a company that ships physical items and will give you access to a kinda halfassed version of Netflix for free, to a Netflix competitor that will give you a break on physical shipping for an extra couple bucks a month. The annual lump sum payment for Prime is off-putting to many, I would guess, especially since the streaming video component seems like Netflix But Not So Much. If Amazon puts more of a push behind its original programming (they have Transparent, but this is literally the only Amazon show anyone likes enough to talk about), Netflix could be in trouble.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:21 AM on April 18, 2016
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posted by iamck at 9:10 AM on April 18, 2016 [3 favorites]