iPad News: Amazon to Launch Streaming Video Service?

Posted Jan 29, 2011 at 6:11PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: iPad News Tags: Amazon, apple, ios, Netflix, news, streaming video, tablet

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A sharp-eyed Amazon Prime member found something very interesting on the site Saturday morning. At the bottom of a Video-on-Demand movie was this: “Your Amazon Prime membership now includes unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows at no additional cost.” This sounds like a pretty good deal, since an Amazon Prime membership is $79 per year, while the same period on Netflix Watch Instantly will run you $95.88. But don’t get excited about being able to switch over just yet, since the mysterious message has since disappeared from the Amazon site. The Watch Instantly service has certainly attracted more customers to Netflix, which saw its membership increase by 7.7 million last year, and a third of new subscribers are choosing the streaming-only option for $7.99 per month. The market looks prime for a competitor, and Amazon seems to have what it takes to deliver. Rumors have been swirling that Amazon was interested in purchasing Netflix or starting is own video streaming service, and this info, as briefly as it appeared, would seem to confirm the speculation.

Netflix subscribers might want to wait until Amazon has time to beef up its selection, since the former currently has 28,000 titles to Amazon’s 5,000. Will there be room for two competing video streaming services? Given the exploding number of mobile devices like the iPad capable of showing streaming content, this has to be a field with unlimited growth.

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