Name: Amazon Just Upped its Streaming Game
Uploaded: 2016-04-18
Duration: 2 min 31 s
Description: You can now use the service without Prime.

[ SOUND ] Amazon will offer its video streaming service as a stand alone item for the first time. Robert, is it a good idea? This is a fantastic idea. It's excellent. It's great. There's nothing bad about it. Okay. I'm Serious so amazon is separating its video streaming service from its normal Amazon Prime bundle which comes with things like free two- day shipping, music streaming, or book borrowing for the Kindle. All good stuff. All excellent stuff. but now what Amazon is doing is they're opening up their addressable market. They're going to have more options for consumers, more flexibility and in the end it's only going to get them more customers. And more reasons for those customers to scratch their heads. Look the math doesn't add up. You said it yourself. 99 dollars A year for all of that good stuff, the shipping and the streaming and what have you, this new service, the monthly just for video is $ 9 a month, that's $ 108 a year. And if you want all of prime, that's $ 11 a month, which is $ 132 a year. It's more money, how is that good for the end consumer? No way. Your mouth is missing the point, Andrew. Because if you've got a die hard fanatic of a TV show, and this person wants to binge watch one season of one show, sure you've got subscribed for a month Full year. Say you've got a student who needs to order books online. They need to do that in the fall and in the spring so you subscribe to Amazon for a couple months and it ends up being way cheaper than going in for the full year. Sure, but what are you getting? Let's focus on the video streaming part for a second, okay? What are you getting When you pay this money. You're getting a show like Transparent, very good show. You're getting The Man in the High Castle, also good, a little depressing. You're getting reruns like FX's The Americans. I really like watching this show. But you're not getting a whole lot else that you can't get at another streaming service, and that's the issue here. Amazon separating its streaming service from the shipping and all the other stuff, kind of exposes the fact that there's not a whole lot in the Amazon library. Hey, maybe these shows don't mean that much for you, but again there are Big fans of these TV shows who are gonna do anything to watch Jeffrey Tambor's season of his next show. Or to get their fix of a Cold War Era spy intrigue in the Americans. [ LAUGH ] Which I know you like. Guilty. All this is gonna do, is allow Amazon to compete better against its rivals. Rivals like Netflix or Hulu, Showtime and HBO. And actually this option is cheaper on a monthly basis than Netflix. So again, it's only gonna make Amazon more competitive. That's a fair point. For one show with a diehard fan base, come to Fortune. com for more Tech Debate. [ SOUND ]

Amazon Just Upped its Streaming Game

You can now use the service without Prime.