So Amazon’s accidentally leaked all-you-can-eat video streaming has come to pass. And the Hulu, Netflix competitor is free to all Prime members. Well, all full price Prime subscribers. As it looks like those of you on free or discounted subs have been left out. I’m an occasional, but current, Prime member — $79 a year gets me free 2 day shipping and discounted overnight or same-day shipping ($3.99) on physical goods.
So my first thought this AM was, I’m cancelling Netflix! Or Hulu Plus! But it’s not yet clear what sort of quality one can expect from Amazon’s catalog of commercial free video content. Indeed, Engadget took a quick look and wasn’t overly impressed with the picture. Additionally, while Amazon offers over 90,000 pieces of digital video content… only 5,000 are available for “free.” And who knows what determines the selection and rotation.
But I have to say I’m impressed with the wide variety of devices Amazon was able to launch the service with. Existing apps from the likes of Roku boxes and Vizio connected televisions are a go. Which means I’ll be sampling some Amazon Prime streaming this evening. Unfortunately, as you can see in the pic below, “instant videos are not currently available on TiVo devices”. I reached out to TiVo to learn of their intentions, but they have nothing more to share at this time. Unfortunately, given the current state of affairs, an iPad or iPhone app probably also isn’t in the cards any time soon.