Amazon gives cord-cutters another option
Prime Video has a lower price than streaming rivals Netflix, CraveTV
In a move that’s good news for consumers but ominous for competitors like Netflix and CraveTV, Amazon Prime Video launched Wednesday in Canada.
The announcement came weeks after the death of Rogers and Shaw’s video streaming service Shomi, and is part of an Amazon video service expansion to more than 200 countries.
While it may cause consternation at Bell Media’s CraveTV and Netflix — Bell Media president Mary Ann Turcke recently spoke to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission about concerns over Amazon’s impending arrival — it means more choice for consumers.
Amazon Prime Video, at $79 annually, and no extra cost for customers who already subscribe to Amazon Prime, undercuts the Netflix price in Canada of around $10 a month and CraveTV’s $7.99 a month.
However, there’s more to socalled over-the-top services — entertainment services delivered by the Internet instead of conventional means like cable TV — than price.
If you already have a Netflix subscription or get Bell’s CraveTV, should you sign up? Is it time to cut the cord and rely on the Internet exclusively for your home entertainment, giving up your regular cable service?
Here Five reasons to give Amazon Prime Video a try:
It’s free for the first 30 days. What do you have to lose but a bit of time checking out the offerings?
Prime Video comes with extras. The $79 you pay for a year of Amazon Prime includes the video service, free two-day shipping and some other features you may find useful such as unlimited photo storage. It also lets you choose the quality of streaming — you can choose lower-quality streaming to save on data.
Amazon Prime isn’t necessarily an either-or choice. If I add the cost of Amazon Prime’s $79 annual subscriptiontowhatI’mpayingforNetflix, that total is still just over $20 a month. That pales in comparison to the bill my family has been known to run up in pay-per-view fees.
All three services have mobile apps and like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video lets you download content for viewing while you’re offline, with some limitations. Prime Video can be accessed through its app on Android and iOS phones and tablets, Fire tablets, LG and Samsung smart TVs or via primevideo.com.
Still, the variety available means nothing if these over-the-top services don’t have something you want to watch. Some viewers want HBO and Showtime and feel it’s worth having CraveTV for that alone. At 628 titles listed for CraveTV on JustWatch, a search engine service that lets you browse the offerings of the various providers, Crave’s numbers are much lower than Netflix (over 3,500). Prime Video brings even more to the mix, but if you’re looking for particular shows or movies, you may find the Crave content doesn’t overlap the others a lot.
Prime brings some high-profile titles, including The Grand Tour, Transparent, The Man in the High Castle and Tumble Leaf. Amazon Prime Video is available in a number of languages and also has sub-titles for a number of titles for viewing in other languages.