Amazon Prime is a very popular service, and is still the best overall deal if you're interested in streaming Amazon video content, because it comes out a little cheaper, and has the added benefit of free shipping. However, for those unwilling or unable to pay for the entire yearlong subscription up front, Amazon has now created an opportunity similar to Netflix, wherein subscribers can pay by the month for streaming content. If one pays by the month, the streaming subscription would total $107.88, versus the typical $99/yearly cost for Amazon Prime, but if you're interested in trying out the service for a few months, or subscribing for a limited time period, say for the Summer, when your children are out of school and apt to watch more television and movies, and then plan to cancel the service during the school year, it might be a good deal. Here's an article with more information.Log In
Oh wow, that is neat Diane Lane. Thanks for posting that. I do enjoy Prime services, but I am not going to pay for an entire contract. I might utilize this option at some point if I am looking for programming. I can live without the programming for now, but I might not mind paying a monthly subscription. I wonder if that includes the free shipping too? I would defintely do that if that was an option offered.
No, it's the streaming video portion, unbundled from the shipping portion of the Amazon Prime subscription. I believe the Amazon Prime also has some sort of Kindle benefit associated to it as well, and that also wouldn't be included in this unbundled option. I have been interested in Amazon Prime for a while now, but since I don't shop that much these days, I don't really need the free shipping as much as I would have in the past. It's also difficult to come up with an extra $100 all at once, so this might work out for me once I finally do cut the cable. Basically you're getting less benefits with this stripped down version, for a little more money, but have the opportunity to pay per month, and so could cancel after a month or two if you chose, and it's easier for many these days to come up with around $10/month, versus a lump sum of around $99.
I believe it all depends on whether or not one has $100 lying around to spend it for on-demand entertainment. Those who are not sure whether or not they will be in need of that kind of service for the coming months (e.g. holidays for 2-3 months) then paying $100 up-front is a waste of money and they'd rather pay a monthly fee. Also, it's not 100% guaranteed that your show will be kept available forever. Companies buy and sell rights to streaming companies all the time so if you want to sign up to watch 3-4 specific TV shows then you'd better not buy a yearly subscription since you may end up watching all the episodes and seasons within less than half a year's time.
That's a good point about the shows not always being available @NickJonathan98. I can remember that from when I had Netflix previously, and have also encountered it with AT&T. The On Demand shows are only available for a certain time frame, then they're gone. On the plus side, at least there's a warning, if you happen to check out the program and see the warning, but sometimes I see a name of a show or movie I'm interested in, but by the time I get around to watching it, it's no longer available. What I tend to do in that case is look around, because it seems if something is available on one site for a certain period, I can then find it elsewhere, either on Netflix, or maybe Amazon Video on Demand, so can view it that way.
This will be good for anyone who gets hooked on The Man From the High Castle and is no longer enrolled in Prime. However coming from a big fan of Amazon Prime's streaming service, after today's big Netflix/Disney announcement I don't see how Amazon streaming currently competes without another step forward as its own self-contained product.
