Oh yeah, SI is jumping on the Amazon streaming bandwagon.
Like millions of Americans, we too are hopping mad at the Netflix bastards for hiking their fees by a whopping 60% for customers on the DVD+streaming plan.
So when we read Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ note today on the e-commerce web site that the company had inked a deal with Fox to expand its streaming portfolio, we decided to give Amazon streaming aka Amazon Prime a shot.
Plus, it’s free for the first 30-days and you can cancel it before the trial period ends without paying a penny. 😉
The Fox deal expands Amazon’s Movies and TV shows on its streaming platform to 11,000 titles. Still limited compared to Netflix’ 30,000 plus movie and TV titles but we expect Amazon will ramp up its offerings soon if it intends to stay in the game.
New additions from the Fox library include 24, Arrested Development, The X-Files, Ally McBeal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Wonder Years.
Amazon Prime streaming, which debuted earlier this year, now has deals with CBS, NBCUniversal, Sony, Warner Bros and Fox.
The Catch?
The catch, at least for cheapo desis here who insist on everything free, with unlimited Amazon instant streaming is you have to fork out $80 a year.
But the $80 also gets you free 2-day shipping on Amazon purchases. So, if like us you’re already an Amazon customer making multiple purchases a year it’s not that shabby a deal.
Works out to about $6.67 a month and that’s not including the benefits of 30-day free trial and two-day shipping.
Amazon Streaming Quality
Amazon streaming, like Netflix streaming, works on multiple devices (set-tops, Roku, gaming consoles, some TV models etc).
Setting up our Roku player to work with the Amazon streaming service on the Samsung TV took about five minutes. You first sign up at Amazon.com on the PC. Then go to the Roku box/TV set. Add Amazon to your channels. Get a code. Enter the code on the PC/Amazon web site. Voila, you’re set.
Since we already had an account with Amazon, it was probably easier because we didn’t have to add our credit card and address details.
But there are some issues with Amazon streaming. Mainly, to do with the menu.
The Amazon streaming selection is broadly classed into four categories – Top Movies, Top TV, Movie Genres and TV Genres.
For both movies and TV, there’s a bunch of genres like Action, Comedy, Drama etc and you can also search for a title. A big pain with Amazon streaming is that there’s no queue like Netflix.
We hope Amazon fixes its streaming menu.
After a quick scan of the titles, we picked the 2009 Israeli film The Assassin Next Door (starring the Bond girl Olga Kurylenko) directed by Danny Lerner.
To test the service, we watched the movie for a few minutes.
There were no issues with the quality of Amazon streaming directly to TV (via Roku) and we plan to watch the full film later this evening.
We suspect Amazon will bundle its streaming service with the tablet it’s expected to launch Wednesday.
Now, if only there were a way to watch Amazon Prime streaming on our iPad 2 that would be really nice.
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Guess Netflix just lost one of their best customers!!! I wonder why they raised their movie rentals by almost 60%, did they have a monopoly in US or something? Raising 60% in price is an indication of Netflix’s supreme confidence (Or overconfidence) of its market share.
“The catch, at least for cheapo desis here who insist on everything free, with unlimited Amazon instant streaming is you have to fork out $80 a year.”
I donno about desis in US, but the average desi here in Chennai spends almost 1000 per month on films (Excluding buying of pirated DVDs), which amounts to 22 dollars per month (500 for tickets and 500 for Popcorn, Cola, and Puffs L:) ). I wish that there was a reliable streaming service here too. Guess if Amazon is looking at a good market, India is the best place.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. No, we did not ditch Netflix completely, only the streaming part. We still retain the DVD-by-Mail portion of our membership.
2. Yes, Netflix is a monopoly here, both on DVD-by-Mail and streaming. Others (Blockbuster) have so far failed to gain traction.
Amazon has only streaming but may eventually pose a threat to Netflix if they ramp up their streaming titles and try some innovative marketing stuff like bundling with their other offerings at an attractive price.
3. You write: I donno about desis in US,
Going to an evening movie here for a family of four will set you back by $80 including Tickets, Popcorn, Soda and Gas).
If it’s a Tamil/Telugu movie, it might cost even more. Because the Laws of Entertainment are different here – Crappier the movie the more you pay. 😉 Honest. We paid $18 per ticket for Allu Arjun’s garbage Badrinath (Telugu), about 40% higher than a good Brad Pitt movie.
That’s why a lot of desis wait until Tue/Wed and get the DVD of the new release for $1 or $2 from the local Indian grocery store.
“Going to an evening movie here for a family of four will set you back by $80 including Tickets, Popcorn, Soda and Gas).
If it’s a Tamil/Telugu movie, it might cost even more. Because the Laws of Entertainment are different here – Crappier the movie the more you pay. Honest. We paid $18 per ticket for Allu Arjun’s garbage Badrinath (Telugu), about 40% higher than a good Brad Pitt movie.”
Good point. Fortunately, in TN, there is no discrimination (You pay 100 rupees minimum to get a decent seat for any language film in any theatre, be it Casino or the ever-reliable Satyam Cinemas) over film ticket rates.
However, the multiplexes in Chennai have planned their shows intelligently.
Popular multiplexes like Satyam Cinemas does not have much shows for tamil films. Au contraire, they always allot more screens for Hollywood movies, even when a big star’s film like Endhiran is running.
This is because there is a sizable population of movie fans, who throng to watch English movies, I mean ONLY English Movies, especially those in the Action, Fiction, Horror, Comedy, and Science-Fiction genre. That is why I found that shows for movies like “Salt”, “Inglorious Basterds, 2012, Watchmen etc” were so houseful even on weekdays.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Interesting (your last para).
Maybe, SI should increase coverage of Hollywood movies & ditch the Hindi and Tamil shit.
But we’ll make an exception for our two current favorites Sonam Kapoor & Vimala Raman. 😉
“Maybe, SI should increase coverage of Hollywood movies & ditch the Hindi and Tamil shit.”
Maybe SI should increase coverage of Hollywood movies, but still pick up only those rare good Hindi movies (A Wednesday, Dev D, Kaminey, etc) and once in a blue moon tamil movies such as Anbe Sivam, Autograph, Thavamai Thavamirundhu, Angadi Theru, Subramaniapuram etc.
To avoid wasting money on garbage films, you could perhaps add a Poll functionality on your site with options listing some movies, which you feel are good. After a specific film gets good number of votes, then you can take chances and view the movie.
This ensures that you don’t spend $$$$$$ on shitty Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi movies and select the best ones to review.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
OMG, if we installed a Poll plugin the majority of our readers would insist we watch only Vandhan Vendran, Ponan Vandan, Machchan Thottan, Mankatha, Sorikatha, Podda Podi, Chatharathil Oru Rathiri, Nuvve Naa Rakshasi, Nene Nu Pisachi and such masterpieces.
No way.
We may be crazy but not that crazy.
At least, not yet. 🙁