In case you missed the announcement yesterday, Amazon unleashed upon the world their own Instant Streaming service to compete with Netflix. The cost? Become an Amazon Prime member for $79/year and their entire instant-watch library is included with it!
I get my television and movie entertainment almost exclusively from streaming video through my wonderful little Roku, so I was very excited to see another option for instant streaming become available. Yesterday I rushed home from work, signed up for my free trial of Amazon Prime, fired up the Roku, and started checking things out on the Amazon Instant Video channel. This post contains just my first impressions that I wanted to share right off the bat. I plan to right up a full length “review” of this service at the end of my one-month Amazon Prime trial membership.
The first thing I was curious about was the selection of movie and television shows available and how they compared to Netflix’s library. It was about what I expected, there are a lot of similarities, but I was pretty much expecting that. Unfortunately, it’s the movie studios that control what’s available to stream instantly online through these services.
After perusing the library of available titles, I decided to watch Louis C.K.’s stand up special, Chewed. The video loaded and began to play just as quickly as Netflix, and the picture was just as good as well. I experienced zero problems while playing the program (note that your internet connection/speed plays a factor into this), and I was satisfied with the experience. It’s important to note that I do next to zero streaming on my PC laptop, and this experience was all through my Roku. A few friends gave the web version a go, and while they said the streaming experience was just fine, the library navigation was a bit “clunky”.
So, which is better, Netflix or Amazon? Frankly, it’s too early to tell at this moment. Amazon does cost less for a year’s worth of service by about $20, and that’s something to definitely consider. Also, we’re already starting to see something that some BSR bots here – and some of you readers – pointed out that was likely to happen: Exclusivity rights. Just yesterday, Netflix announced an exclusive deal with CBS to begin offering a bunch of their shows including, Star Trek, Frasier, and Cheers, so you won’t be finding any of these classic titles on Amazon Instant Video any time soon. With an exclusivity deal being announced right out of the gates in this newly-born competition don’t be surprised if this becomes a back-and-forth battle of which service can get an exclusive deal with certain studios. I was really hoping that this competition would benefit the customer by making these two services compete with prices, but it’s looking like it’s going to go the other way, and it may end up being that to get a truly full library of movies and shows to watch from an assortment of studios, the customer may be “forced” to have both. I’m not opposed to having both if there are small and beneficial differences in their offerings and the price is right, but to create a need for customers to have both will end up being very frustrating.
Those are my initial thoughts on Amazon Instant Video one day in. I’ll be back in a month with a full review!
Share your thoughts on Amazon Instant Video in the comments below!