1 & Only Amazon Prime Video (home video releases + streaming) Thread

**WTK** · 04-17-2016, 09:49 PM

http://variety.com/2016/digital/news...hly-1201755340

Amazon Launches Prime Video Standalone Option for $9 Monthly
APRIL 17, 2016 | 07:00PM PT

Amazon is gunning for Netflix more aggressively with a new pricing scheme.

The e-commerce giant is now offering its video-streaming service in the U.S. independent of the Prime free-shipping program. Purchased separately, Prime Video will cost $8.99 per month — one dollar less than Netflix’s most popular plan.

Since Amazon launched its subscription video service five years ago, it has been available only through the Prime membership program, which currently costs $99 per year. The company has used video as a key benefit to lure more customers to Prime, but Amazon sees a ripe opportunity to sell an SVOD service priced directly to compete with Netflix as well as Hulu.

The move comes just as Netflix, the No. 1 subscription VOD player, is set to raise rates for subscribers who are currently paying $7.99 per month for the two-stream HD service to $9.99 in May. Amazon Prime Video allows up to three concurrent streams per account.

In addition, Amazon is offering a new payment option for full Prime membership of $10.99 monthly, with no annual commitment. That’s 25% more than than the $99 annual Prime membership, but Amazon said many customers have been asking for month-to-month flexibility with the program.

The new options will begin showing up for Amazon users starting Sunday evening at amazon.com/prime, with all U.S. users scheduled to have access to them by Monday morning. The new monthly pricing options for Prime and Prime Video are available only in the U.S.

Prime includes unlimited free shipping on millions of products; Prime Video, which includes tens of thousands of TV episodes and movies, including original series and films; unlimited access to more than a million songs with Prime Music; unlimited secure photo storage; and other benefits.

Like Netflix and Hulu, Amazon has been investing in exclusive original content as well as striking exclusive licensing pacts. Amazon Studios original series include “Transparent,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” “Catastrophe,” “Bosch,” “The Man in the High Castle,” “Red Oaks” and “Hand of God.”

This year, Prime Video also will launch Woody Allen’s first-ever TV series, plus David E. Kelley’s new series starring Billy Bob Thorten, as well as the third seasons of “Transparent” and “Mozart in the Jungle” and kids’ series including “Tumble Leaf,” “Thunderbirds are Go” and an “American Girls” live-action special.

Licensed TV shows on Prime Video include “Downton Abbey,” “The Good Wife,” “Doctor Who,” “Vikings,” “The Americans,” “Orphan Black,” “Suits,” and older HBO programming including “Boardwalk Empire” and “Veep,” as well as movies including “The Hunger Games,” “Interstellar” and “Ex Machina.”

In addition, any of the Prime membership options also provide access to add-on subscriptions from Showtime, Starz and other video services.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...eparate-884612

Amazon Aims at Netflix With Separate Prime, Video Subscriptions
7:00 PM PDT 4/17/2016

Customers can now pay $10.99 a month for Prime or $8.99 a month for just Prime Video.

Amazon is taking on Netflix with a new standalone membership for Prime Video.

The e-commerce giant on Sunday night will begin offering two new monthly memberships, the first time it has directly allowed customers to eschew the commitment of an annual Prime subscription in favor of a more flexible monthly option (Spring began offering monthly Prime memberships as part of a bundle last month). Now, customers can subscribe to Amazon Prime for $10.99 a month or just Prime Video for $8.99 a month.

The monthly Amazon Prime subscription comes with all the perks that annual Prime members also receive, including free shipping, access to music via Prime Music and TV and movies via Prime Video. The Prime Video option, however, offers Amazon's library of original and licensed video without the free shipping or music streaming perks.

Amazon has made its video streaming business a priority in recent years, bulking up on original shows like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle, paying top dollar for exclusive streaming rights to broadcast and cable TV fare and spending big to distribute films such as Spike Lee's Chi-Raq and Sundance title Manchester by the Sea. But this is the first time that the Jeff Bezos-led company will separate its video offerings from its core Prime shipping offering.

The move puts Amazon in more direct competition with streaming rival Netflix and comes as the subscription video market has heated up over the last year with the introduction of an ad-free Hulu service and YouTube's Red offering.

"Amazon is in this to win this," says Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. "Before, video was an afterthought to free shipping. Now, it's top of mind. In order for this to success, they're going to have to market it and spend a lot of money on new content."

Pachter notes that the new memberships are being released just a few weeks ahead of Netflix's planned price increase, when it will begin charging $9.99 for its standard membership (an increase of $1 for those who subscribed between May 2014 and September 2015 and an increase of $2 for older U.S. subscribers). Hulu, meanwhile, charges $11.99 for its recently introduced ad-free option.

"It was inevitable that Amazon was going to promote that Prime was cheaper, but an annual membership fee versus a monthly membership is not quite a perfect comparison," adds Pachter. "Netflix opened the door with price increases."

Both monthly subscription tiers are more expensive than Amazon's annual subscription. The company raised the price from $79 to $99 in the spring of 2014. The $10.99-a-month Prime membership is equivalent to nearly $132 for the year, while the $8.99 a month Prime Video option is nearly $108 a year. What makes these monthly options attractive, however, is that they can be canceled at any time. So, a customer can sign up for the monthly plan, binge the first two seasons of Transparent and then cancel the plan.

Amazon made efforts to launch a similar monthly option in 2012, but tested it for only two weeks before shutting the program down. The Seattle-based Amazon is set to report first quarter earnings Thursday after a weaker-than-expected holiday sales season. The company had its biggest quarter ever at the end of last year but reported revenue and earnings lower than what Wall Street was expecting.

Amazon did not make executives available for interviews about the new monthly subscription plans, but the move appears designed to address the the needs of customers who are hesitant to commit to an annual membership or are only subscribing to Prime for the video streaming. The company has not disclosed the exact size of its Amazon Prime subscriber base, but these new monthly subscriptions could also help to boost its subscriber count. Netflix currently boasts 44.7 million total subscribers in the United States.

Notes Pachter: "What this says is that they now believe the content is good enough to justify a standalone service."

**Art-chan** · 04-17-2016, 09:59 PM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

I think this is a great idea, especially if Amazon gets more Anime exclusives--makes it more affordable to get a monthly subscription and marathon a bunch of things at once, once they develop a library.

**WTK** · 04-17-2016, 10:20 PM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

^ Not very many titles come to mind that can considered as streaming exclusive.

Some of the titles that I can think of:
- A Letter to Momo
- Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (ongoing simulcast)
- Kick-Heart
- The Mystical Laws
- Welcome to the Space Show

**EmperorBrandon** · 04-17-2016, 11:13 PM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

That reminds me that I haven't seen A Letter to Momo or Welcome to the Space Show yet. Need to try and get to those on Amazon Prime.

**Buckeye** · 04-18-2016, 10:54 AM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

That certainly was coming. If Amazon was going to take on Netflix, they had to have a subscription plan for those who just wanted to binge watch the videos and don't have much use for the rest of the Prime services. That certainly alleviates some of the shock from Amazon's sudden entry into the exclusive simulcast business.

**Rhys2753** · 04-18-2016, 02:31 PM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

The only way this is cheaper is if you only use it for a couple months and then unsubscribe, it's hilariously typical of them to charge that when a year's worth of "Prime Video" is more expensive than a year of "Full Prime"

**WTK** · 06-26-2016, 11:03 PM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

Robotech - The Original Broadcast Version $0.00 Watch with a Prime membership
- The Macross Saga
- The Masters Saga
- The New Generation

- Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles

**WTK** · 07-14-2016, 08:00 PM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

Just added:
- BATTERY the animation

Amazon to Stream New Crayon Shin-chan Spinoff Anime Series in Multiple Countries

http://4NN.cx/.104293

13 episodes set on spaceship will premiere on August 3 on Amazon Prime exclusively

Amazon to Stream New Crayon Shin-chan Spinoff Anime Series in Multiple Countries
posted on 2016-07-14 02:10 EDT

13 episodes set on spaceship will premiere on August 3 on Amazon Prime exclusively

Amazon Japan announced on Thursday that it will exclusively stream a Crayon Shin-chan anime series spinoff titled Crayon Shin-chan Gaiden Alien vs. Shinnosuke through its Amazon Prime Video service. The 13 episodes of "season 1" will begin streaming in Japan on August 3, and Amazon announced that it will also stream the anime in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other countries later.

Unlike the main television anime series which is mostly set in modern-day Japan, the new series will be a "sealed room" suspense comedy set 100 years in the future. The story begins when Shinnosuke and the entire Nohara family wake up from cold sleep to find themselves aboard a space ship drifting in space. The anime will depict the various events that take place inside the ship.

[...]

Source: Comic Natalie

**WTK** · 07-28-2016, 12:30 AM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

$0.00 Watch with a Prime membership

- Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (English Subtitled)
- Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross (English Subtitled)
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross (English Subtitled)

**Oniros** · 07-28-2016, 02:08 AM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

If only Canada got this too...

**Jimmie M** · 07-28-2016, 07:47 PM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

Originally posted by WTK

$0.00 Watch with a Prime membership

- Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (English Subtitled)
- Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross (English Subtitled)
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross (English Subtitled)

Excellent! These are almost impossible to get on DVD in R1 these days due to availablity and/or cost (Mostly cost, especially on eBay & Amazon Marketplace) so I'm glad to see these available for watching. Good news indeed for these classic shows.

**WTK** · 08-13-2016, 02:54 PM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

Originally posted by WTK

$0.00 Watch with a Prime membership

- Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (English Subtitled)
- Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross (English Subtitled)
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross (English Subtitled)

It only took until today for the Harmony Gold folks to mention this...

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=macross%20amazon%20from%3ARobotechNews&src=typd&lang=en

**WTK** · 08-13-2016, 09:08 PM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

樹木看護師あいかの手帳1 (Aica's notebook #1 DAILYLIFE) is streaming on Amazon (short; 1-min?). Watch for $0.00 with a Prime membership. The listing mentions English subtitles.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K3IDCSK

EDIT: no longer available

**WTK** · 09-20-2016, 10:13 PM

Re: 1 & Only Amazon Prime Video Streaming Thread

Watch for $0.00 with Prime Video (this may not be free before; EDIT: they could still be adding missing episodes)
- Swiss Family Robinson

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