Amazon Prime Video is a video streaming service available for Amazon Prime members. It is a business division of Amazon Prime, and a paid subscription service established, owned, and operated by Amazon.com, Inc. On September 7, 2006, the company launched the Amazon Unbox video streaming service in the US. Month of September 4, 2008, the service was renamed Amazon Video on Demand. On February 22, 2011, the company’s service was rebranded as Amazon Instant Video. Over 5,000 TV shows and movies were added to be viewed by Amazon Prime members. Currently, Amazon Prime Video offers anywhere unlimited ad-free streaming of Amazon Originals, premium movies, and TV shows around the world, except for mainland Iran China, Syria, and North Korea.
Amazon Prime – A Complete List of Features
- Free Two-Day Shipping – on eligible items to addresses globally.
- Free Same-Day Delivery – in certain areas.
- Kindle Owners’ Lending Library – can borrow one book each calendar month, and the catalog includes over 1,000,000 eBooks.
- Kindle First – early access to download a new book for free every month from the Kindle First picks.
- Audible Channels – free access to original audio editions of standout articles and news from top sources.
- Prime Reading – free access to over 1,000 top Kindle books, magazines, and comics.
- Prime Instant Video – unlimited streaming of movies and TV episodes.
- Prime Music – unlimited, ad-free access to hundreds of Prime playlists and over a million songs.
- Prime Photos – secure unlimited photo storage in Amazon Cloud Drive.
- Prime Pantry – members can purchase low-priced groceries and household and pet care items for a flat delivery fee of US$ 5.99.
- Amazon Elements – access to Amazon’s line of everyday essentials.
- Prime Early Access – 30-minute early access to select ‘Lightning Deals’ and new events on MyHabit.com.
- Membership sharing – Prime members may share their account with up to four eligible household members living at the same address.
Insights
With an Amazon Prime membership, a customer can access thousands of Prime Video titles at no additional cost. Customers have the option to rent or buy movies and TV episodes. As well as subscribe to over 100 premium channels with Prime Video Channels subscriptions. Also, Prime Video includes a service, that allows customers to sign up for add-on channels. Amazon Prime Video Channel includes HBO, Showtime, Cheddar, CBS All Access, Britbox, PBS Masterpiece, Sundance Now, Sports Illustrated TV, Hallmark Movies Now, PBS Kids, Brown Sugar, Go Russia, Best of British TV, Mubi, and Stand-Up Karaoke. Amazon Prime Video streams unlimited TV episodes and movies from the Prime Video app on compatible smart TVs, Fire TV, mobile phones or tablets, game consoles, or streaming media players.
The company obtains video and music content for customers through licensing agreements that have a wide range of licensing provisions. Including both fixed and variable payment schedules. Customers of Amazon Video can stream movies and TV shows on the web using an HTML5 player, which is supported in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 11, Edge, Safari, and Opera. Amazon Prime Video supports up to High Dynamic Range (HDR) streaming and 4K (UHD), UHD/HDR rolled out with its original content, depending on the device.
More Insights
In recent times, Prime Video has been focused more on adding new, award-winning Prime Originals to the service. Including Oscar-nominated movies – The Big Sick and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In addition, the company is focusing on expanding its slates of programming across the globe by launching new seasons of The Grand Tour from the UK, You Are Wanted from Germany, Bosch, and Sneaky Pete from the US, Breath, and the award-winning Inside Edge from India, and Sentosha shows from Japan. Furthermore, it is expanding its Prime Channels offerings by adding CBS All Access in the US and launching Channels in Germany and the UK.
The company is focused on the upcoming Prime Original series pipeline to be released in 2019, and these include King Lear, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson; Carnival Row, starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne, The Romanoffs, executive produced by Matt Weiner, Good Omens starring Jon Hamm, Homecoming, produced by Sam Esmail and starring Julia Roberts in her first television series; and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski. The company acquired the global television rights for a multi-season production of The Lord of the Rings, and Cortés. Which is a miniseries based on the epic saga of Hernán Cortés from executive producers Steven Zaillian, Steven Spielberg, and others.
As of 2018, Amazon’s video-on-demand service, Amazon Prime Video, occupies the second position in the growing video-on-demand industry.
What’s new to Prime Video in 2018?
- Many new seasons, such as Bosch (S4) and Mozart in the Jungle (S4), Goliath (S2), The Man in the High Castle (S3), The Grand Tour(S3), and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (S2)
- Amazon Original Movies added to Prime Video as of 2018 include director Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck and renowned artist Ai WeiWei’s documentary, Human Flow. The Big Sick also made 2018 Prime Video news for receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay
- Additionally, 2018 marked the launch of a long line-up of new Prime Originals and Amazon Original Movies, including:
- Julia Roberts’ first TV series Homecoming, is based on the popular podcast
- Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is a reinvention of the famed and lauded Tom Clancy hero, with a modern sensibility. It centers on Jack Ryan, who plays an up-and-coming CIA analyst thrust into a dangerous field assignment for the first time. The one-hour, eight-episode dramatic series stars John Krasinski as Jack Ryan, Wendell Pierce (The Wire) as James Greer, and Abbie Cornish as Cathy Mueller.
- You Were Never Really Here, starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Lynne Ramsay are released in theaters in April 2018, before coming to Prime in October the same year.
- Charlize Theron, David Oyelowo, Joel Edgerton, and Amanda Seyfried star in the action-comedy Gringo. Which hit theaters in March 2018, and was made available on Prime in August the same year.
- The Romanoffs from Matt Weiner, the creator of Mad Men.
- Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, starring Joaquin Phoenix. Received critical acclaim at Sundance, and was released theatrically in July 2018. Before joining other Amazon Original Movies on Prime Video at the end of the same year.
- In April 2018, Amazon Prime launched Discovery Kids in the UK.
Upcoming Launches in 2019
- Some Upcoming launches to Amazon Prime in March 2019 include TBD, Made In Heaven (Prime Original Series), Season 1, Boston Legal, Seasons 1–5, Little House On The Prairie, Seasons 1–9, The Practice, Seasons 1–9, The Unit, Seasons 1–4, The Widow (Prime Original Series), Season 1, A Sky Full Of Stars For A Roof (E Per Tetto Un Cielo Di Stelle) (1968), A Woman Possessed (1958), Abduction (2017), Amelia’s 25th (2013), American Beauty (1999), Baba Yaga (1973), Basic Instinct 2 (2006), Big Night (1996), Black Cat (Gatto Nero) (1981), and others
- Amazon Prime Video is also planning to launch more regional language services, and the platform recently launched its sixth language service, Kannada, after the introduction of language services in Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi.
Upcoming Launches in 2020
- Amazon Prime Video is all set to soon launch in Aug 2020 Amazon original series Capone, Arkansas, and Amazon original teen romance drama Chemical Hearts as well as some classics. On the TV front, shows include Californication, Season 1, Chesapeake Shores, season 1, The Boys, and Season 2 (Recap). Dora And The Lost City Of Gold (2019) The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019) Jessy & Nessy: Season 1B (Amazon Original Series) Hard Night Falling (2019) Lucky Day (2019) World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji: Season 1 (Amazon Original Series), Clifford: Season 2B (Amazon Original Series).
- Earlier this year amazon video added Movies: 3:10 To Yuma (2007), Four Weddings and A Funeral (1994), Inception (2010), Margin Call (2011), My Bloody Valentine (1981), Rain Man (1988), Rustlers’ Rhapsody (1985), Safe (2012), Something’s Gotta Give (2003), Spare Parts (2015), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Steel Magnolias (1989), The Holiday (2006), Top Gun (1986)The Cup (2012)
- The online streaming giant also added more series like Beverly Hillbillies: Season 1 (Best TV Ever), Beyond Scared Straight: Season 1 (A&E Crime Central), Bitchin’ Rides: Season 1 (Motortrend), Blood: Season 1 (Acorn TV), Californication: Season 1 (Showtime), Chesapeake Shores: Season 1 (Hallmark Movies Now), Dusty’s Trail: Season 1 (Best Westerns Ever), Fifth Ward: Season 1 (Urban Movie Channel), Ice Road Truckers: Season 1 (HISTORY Vault), Lego Jurassic World: Legend Of Isla Nublar: Season 1, Les Miserables: Season 1 (PBS Masterpiece), Moveable Feast: Season 1 (PBS Living), Riviera: Season 1 (Sundance Now), The Berenstein Bears: Season 1 (PBS Kids), The Teacher: Season 1 (PBS Masterpiece).
- New to rentals and Purchases include Deathstroke: Knights and Dragons (2020), The Fight (2020), The King of Staten Island (2020), Irresistible (2020), and Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020).
What is 2020?
- In Q2 2020, Amazon announced new live content integrations on Amazon Fire TV from YouTube TV and Hulu and discovery options including the new Free tab which helps customers find free movies, TV shows, and more.
- Prime Video launched Watch Parties, a feature that enables Prime members to interact with each other via chat on a desktop while watching Prime Videos.
- Prime Video introduced Prime Video Profiles, allowing users to create and manage up to six profiles. Within a single Prime account for provides more customized recommendations based on profile activity.
Fun Facts:
- In 2018, Amazon.com, Inc. was to spend over US$ 5 billion for Amazon content on Prime Video
- In 2018, Netflix, Inc. and Amazon.com, Inc. spent around US$ 11 billion on content, and it is expected to increase to around US$ 20 billion per year split by 2023
- In 2018, Amazon’s Prime Video Channels Biz generated US$ 1.7 billion. Which is expected to reach US$ 3.6 billion by 2020
- BMO Capital Markets evaluated that Amazon Channels is driving around 25% to 45% of OTT subscriber’s growth for some of these services
- The total number of paid Amazon Prime subscribers is expected to increase to around 164 million by 2020
- The average annual Prime subscription fees are expected to upsurge from around US$ 97 in 2017 to around US$ 110 by 2020.
- In 2020, free one-day delivery was the most popular reason for Prime members to subscribe to the service.
- There will be 56 million Amazon Prime Video subscribers in 2020 in the US.
Amazon Prime Video Statistics:
- As of January 2020, there are 150+ Million Amazon Prime Video users.
- Around 64% of households subscribe to Amazon Prime services globally.
- Approximately 40% of all Amazon Prime members spend over US$ 1,000 a year on the Amazon site.
- Amazon Prime service has over 100 million users globally.
- Amazon Prime Video service is available in over 200 countries and internationally.
- In the previous three years, 25% of Amazon Prime members began to utilize the Amazon Prime Video service.
- In 2018, the most popular Amazon Prime Originals series was ‘The Man in the High Castle’. With approximately 8 million viewers in the US alone.
- Amazon Prime subscribers have watched over 17 million more videos than their competitors streaming Hulu.
- Currently, it has around 75 million videos worldwide, which include around 40 million in the US, and this is expected to reach around 100 million Prime Videos by 2020.
