Amazon's Prime Video streaming service today announced the ability for its users to download television shows and movies to an iPhone, iPad, or Android device (via Re/code). The service had previously supported such a feature, but it was exclusively available for Amazon's own Fire tablets, with today marking the first expansion onto Apple's smartphones.
The feature will let Prime users download video content for later viewing when not in direct proximity of a trustworthy Wi-Fi connection, but won't be available for every single show and film currently offered on Amazon Prime Video. The company still claims to have "thousands" of videos ready to support the new service.
The feature isn’t available for every video Amazon streams, since Amazon needs to work out deals with individual content owners (that is – pay them more money). Amazon says it has “thousands” of titles available for download.
And it looks like those titles include a pretty diverse lineup: There are Amazon’s own home-grown shows, like “Transparent”, of course. But also offerings from CBS (“The Good Wife”), Fox (“Sons of Anarchy”), MGM (“The Hunger Games”) and Paramount (“Star Trek Into Darkness”).
Re/code reports that "in most cases," users will have 15 to 30 days to view the content once it has been downloaded. Today's announcement aims to bolster Amazon Prime Video -- which is bundled into Amazon's $99/year Prime service -- with a feature most other streaming services have yet to support.
Users can download the updated app -- now called "Amazon Video" -- from the App Store for free [Direct Link].
Top Rated Comments
Now bring Prime to the Apple TV.