Amazon Prime Video Now Offered as Standalone $8.99 Monthly Service

Monday April 18, 2016 2:31 AM PDT by Tim Hardwick
Amazon has repositioned its Prime Video service as a standalone $8.99 monthly subscription deal with the option to cancel at any time.

Prior to Sunday night, Amazon's video streaming service was only available to U.S. customers as part of the annual $99 Amazon Prime bundle, which qualified subscribers for free shipping from the company's online retail store, unlimited music streaming, and access to its library of original TV shows and movies.

The differentiation of Prime Video appears to be a renewed bid to take on Netflix, which has increased the price of its streaming service to new users from $8.99 to $9.99. Longtime subscribers to Netflix's standard plan who were paying $7.99 a month were also recently informed that they would start paying $9.99 a month from May. The company is due to report its first quarter earnings this afternoon.

Amazon Video
In addition to Prime Video, Amazon has also introduced a $10.99 per month option for its full Amazon Prime service.

The $99 Amazon Prime annual subscription still works out $32 cheaper than the $10.99 monthly subscription over 12 months, while the Prime Video per month fee comes to $107.88 per annum, nevertheless customers are likely to be attracted to the offer after becoming accustomed to the monthly payment model established by the likes of Netflix and Hulu.

A tvOS app for Prime Video remains unavailable, despite November rumors that Amazon was actively working on an Apple TV app for release before the end of 2015. In October of last year, Amazon removed all Apple TV product listings from its website because the devices do not offer its Prime Video streaming service, which the online retailer said may cause confusion for customers.

Amazon Video for iOS is free on the App Store and accessible by Amazon Prime members. The service is also available on Android, Fire OS, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, Wii U, the web and select TV and Blu-ray players from LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Vizio.

Tag: Amazon Prime Video
62 comments


Top Rated Comments

(View all)
Avatar
themuseboy
26 months ago
Weird, both on my Macbook Pro and my PC this morning this is how the article reads. All the monthly costs show .99?




Rating: 18 Votes
Avatar
friedmud
26 months ago
I have had Prime for many years... but have never used the video part of it.

Main reason? The lack of any place to play it. None of my TVs or my new Apple TVs support it. Sure, I could pull out my iPad... but why bother... plenty of other places to watch stuff that are supported right on my ATV.

Plus their video quality used to be pure crap when I did try it once... I've heard it's improved a lot lately though.

If they ever release a tvOS app then I may take a peak...
[doublepost=1460982504][/doublepost]

Not sure how you guys think Amazon can't compete I have the app built into my TV and they have an app for both xbox and PS4. BTW you can buy a Prime stick for $39.99 a lot cheaper than ATV. What they should do is make Amazon Stick free with a one year subscription to Amazon Video. Put it in a nice box little welcome card in there.. sounds nice.


The thing is... I don't WANT another decice to deal with at all. Getting my wife to press the ATV button on our remote is hard enough... no way is she going to want to mess with yet another device. There is just too much friction involved with dealing with multiple devices.
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
mattopotamus
26 months ago
Amazon won't compete with Netflix if they are not on the ATV and you cannot Google cast the app.

Like the article says, at $8.99 amazon prime is cheaper....I'm confused
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
Ap0ks
26 months ago

It's amazing how much culture has changed in a matter of ten years. From one based around creative endeavours to one that is based much around consumption of video on demand. Has the advent of technology like the iPad, iPhone and Amazon video ushered in an era of consumption, or is it the need for consumption that has ushered in technology like the iPad, iPhone and Amazon video?

I do believe that technology has highlighted a huge flaw of regular TV that a lot of people don't like, the content and schedule is chosen by somebody else.

PVR started changing the opinion of viewers, they could record what they want and watch when they want to, on-demand just takes that a step further. No longer do you have to arrange things around a TV show schedule or make an effort to record it, you can get on with life and watch to your own schedule.

Just as you can with other media types, you can chose when and which books to read, films to watch at the cinema, etc...
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
smacrumon
26 months ago
It's amazing how much culture has changed in a matter of ten years. From one based around creative endeavours to one that is based much around consumption of video on demand. Has the advent of technology like the iPad, iPhone and Amazon video ushered in an era of consumption, or is it the need for consumption that has ushered in technology like the iPad, iPhone and Amazon video?
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
cerote
26 months ago

Weird, both on my Macbook Pro and my PC this morning this is how the article reads. All the monthly costs show .99?



Yep al I see is everything is .99 and some increased price to .99

Well on the main page. So some one must have edited the article but not the main page part or the republished part.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
7thson
26 months ago
I give Amazon credit for designing a really good app for iOS. It's much more responsive than Netflix's and the X-ray feature scratches that itch I get when I see an actor who looks so familiar that I get distracted from the story just trying to figure out who they are. However, this bs with limiting their app on certain boxes is just stupid. I use their service less because of this. I will only use AirPlay once in a blue moon because the experience is just not good. Amazon is wearing sunglasses while driving at night. See also the $300 e-reader.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
AntonLee
26 months ago

Weird, both on my Macbook Pro and my PC this morning this is how the article reads. All the monthly costs show .99?


Same here. I was like "I don't pay .99 cents for Netflix."
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
mattopotamus
26 months ago

I have had Prime for many years... but have never used the video part of it.

Main reason? The lack of any place to play it. None of my TVs or my new Apple TVs support it. Sure, I could pull out my iPad... but why bother... plenty of other places to watch stuff that are supported right on my ATV.

Plus their video quality used to be pure crap when I did try it once... I've heard it's improved a lot lately though.

If they ever release a tvOS app then I may take a peak...
[doublepost=1460982504][/doublepost]

The thing is... I don't WANT another decice to deal with at all. Getting my wife to press the ATV button on our remote is hard enough... no way is she going to want to mess with yet another device. There is just too much friction involved with dealing with multiple devices.


They have very good Picture Quality now, one of the few to actually have 4K HDR. I very much agree about needing another device. I have an ATV and then use google cast for everything else. Amazon is not available on either of those options. I will not buy a fire stick, roku, etc for just 1 service.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
FierceCorgi
26 months ago

Unless you're only planning to subscribe for a month or few then why would you possibly go for this over Prime? Does Amazon really think people are dim enough not to notice you'd be paying more for less?


I might actually go for this, since the only thing I'm interested in currently from this is the upcoming Clarkson/Hammond/May show. I might just wait for that to be released, subscribe for a month or two to watch that, and use it as a trial period to see if I'm interested in signing up for a full year.
Rating: 1 Votes
[ Read All Comments ]