If you are an online video streaming addict like myself, then you are probably well acquainted with the fact that as far as unlimited video streaming goes, Netflix is the only game in town. Sure, there’s Hulu and their paid service, “Hulu Plus” (which is actually a paid service version of Hulu in which you get less, but it’s needed to stream on any other device besides your computer) but they are almost exclusively for TV shows. As far as streaming movies go with an unlimited plan at a set monthly cost, Netflix is it – but that could be changing soon.
For a while now there have been rumors that Amazon.com was looking to release their own unlimited streaming video service, and even rumors that they were planning to outright buy Netflix. Now, it looks like that may be a reality and possibly sooner than we think. A reader over at Engadget, who is an Amazon Prime member, recently got a message when trying to rent a movie from Amazon’s existing video streaming “rental” service informing him that his Amazon Prime membership now includes “unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows” (screenshot above) with a library that was similar to their existing Watch Instantly selection. Unfortunately, Engadget was unable to reproduce this message:
We weren’t able to pull up the option on any of our Prime-enabled accounts and from the comments it doesn’t appear any of you were either. According to our tipster, the option has disappeared from his page as well. One other interesting note came from commenter vfiz, who found that several variations of the primeinstantvideos.com domain name were registered by Amazon-owned DPReview January 5.
So, could Amazon be releasing their own unlimited streaming video service? Looks like it could be coming. One thing that comes to mind is that Amazon’s Video On Demand service, in which you pay a price to either buy or rent the movie for 48 hours, only streams in 480p – but that doesn’t mean they could have improved this. I own a wonderful little device called a Roku through which I am able to watch Hulu Plus, Netflix, and order movies from Amazon VOD. We all know that frustration with Netflix’s streaming video selection, it’s often months after a movie is released on DVD before we see it in their Instant Watch category. Amazon’s VOD catalogue is much better as far as more recent movies go, but right now you are going to pay $3.99 (SD) – $4.99 (HD) to rent them for 48 hours. If, and this is a big if, Amazon is able to release unlimited video streaming to their Amazon Prime members with a catalog that reflects their current VOD catalog, Netflix may need to step up their game with regards to their instant streaming library.
If Amazon does release such a feature, I will definitely be signing up for Amazon Prime to do a direct comparison to Netflix, after which I will make a decision to keep one or the other, or maybe both if it’s justifiable. To be an Amazon Prime member you pay a yearly fee of $79 and currently this gives you free expedited shipping on anything you order, if they throw unlimited video streaming with a killer library that makes one hell of a deal that makes the cost of Netflix’s cost of just over $95 (for streaming only, it’s more if you get physical discs in the mail as well) seem a little steep.
Product and service competition is always a good thing as it usually ends up benefitting the customer most. Up until this point Netflix has essentially gone unchallenged, it’ll be good for us if Amazon jumps in the ring and we have two services trying to offer the customer the best movie/TV selection at the lowest price!
What do you think about Amazon possibly releasing an unlimited video streaming service? Will you give it a try if they do, or will you remain a diehard Netflix faithful? Share your thoughts in the comments below!