tv everywhere1804v3_news 19/04/2016 11:22 Page 1
ADVANCED-TELEVISION
TV Everywhere
I N T E R N A T I O N A L
Amazon steps up
Netflix challenge
mazon is introducing
new options to
subscribe to its Prime
membership service on a
monthly basis, a change that
could enable its video service to
compete more effectively with
Netflix. The company now
offers two new Prime price
plans, the first of which costs
customers $8.99 (€7.95) a
month to stream movies and
A
been seen as a major hurdle for
anyone thinking about joining the
service. The new options do away
with the need for an annual
commitment to Prime, widening its
appeal to people who are more
comfortable joining it on a shortterm basis. Broadening the monthly
options for Prime to anyone and
introducing a video-only service,
makes it easier for people to
compare the price of Prime to that of
V O LU M E 1 2 N O 1
already offer video as a separate
service,” notes Paolo Pescatore,
director, multiplay and media at
CCS Insight.
“This significant move underlines
the company’s commitment to video
and we firmly believe that the next
step is to launch the new service
overseas. Its closest rival, Netflix,
has done a phenomenal job of
launching in many new markets
within a short period of time and as
a result, has a far greater reach and
can benefit more from scale and of
course early mover advantage.”
“Offering video as part of Prime
was holding Amazon back from
launching into new markets, as there
was little to choose from in terms of
“Amazon has finally unveiled a standalone online video service.”
television shows from a new
video-only version of its Prime
service. A second new plan,
priced at $10.99 a month, will
provide access to the full
benefits of the Prime service,
including video streaming, free
two-day shipping on Amazon
orders, music streaming and
other services.
A requirement for customers to
pay $99 up front for an annual
membership to Amazon Prime had
dominant subscription streaming
provider Netflix. Netflix has long
been available on a monthly basis,
without an annual commitment,
offering several plans ranging from
$7.99 to $11.99 a month, depending
on video quality and the number of
screens to which customers can
stream video at the same time.
“Amazon has finally unveiled a
standalone online video service;
putting them in the same category of
most, if not all of its rivals that
price. It therefore boils down to
content and new features such as
UHD 4K, HDR, offline viewing and
much more,” he suggests.
“In addition, this could present a
great opportunity for Amazon to
sign up new subscribers and
eventually cross sell other services to
them including a Prime
subscription. Amazon is certainly
building a strong set of capabilities
in both hardware and services to
compete with Netflix and others.”