Amazon is going head-to-head with Netflix and other streaming services with the announcement of a new video-only monthly subscription option for Amazon Prime. The move makes Amazon Prime Video more appealing to a broader range of customer who may not be interested in paying for Amazon Prime just to get access to the streaming video content. It also makes it increasingly more expensive to cut the cord from traditional cable and still have access to a broad range of shows and content.
New Amazon Prime Plans
There are actually two new services from Amazon. One offers a monthly subscription to the complete Amazon Prime membership—with all of its associated perks and benefits, including free 2-day shipping on Primer eligible items, Amazon Prime Music, and Amazon Prime Video. The net per year works out to $32.88 more than the $99 annual subscription, but make Amazon Prime more accessible to customers that can rationalize $10.00 a month, but don’t want to spend $100 at one time for Amazon Prime.
The second option is the video-only option for $8.99 per month. For $8.99 per month, customers can choose to subscribe to just Amazon Prime Video—which is a direct competitor to Netflix. Like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video has a diverse collection of movies and TV shows, new releases, and even original shows that can only be found on Amazon, like Transparent and Catastrophe.
I would argue that it’s silly to bother paying $8.99 per month for just Amazon Prime Video when you can get all of Amazon Prime for just $2 a month more—and I am sure Amazon is banking on customers using that same logic. Amazon Prime Video is pretty great, but that extra $2 gets you a ton of additional benefits.
Cutting the Cord
Services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix allow consumers to have more options when it comes to watching TV and movies. There is a growing movement to rebel against the bloat of traditional cable TV services—and the model of paying exorbitant amounts of money for packages with hundreds of channels you don’t care about just so you can access the seven or eight channels you actually watch. Live sports and local channels are still a question mark, but for the most part these services do allow consumers to re-think how they pay for and watch video content.
Therein lies the problem as well, though. I’m a fan of Amazon Prime—and Amazon Prime Video. The thing is, I’m also a fan of Netflix…and Showtime…and HBO…and Hulu. I may be able to scale back by traditional cable plan, or even cut the cord entirely. But, if I want to see all of the shows I like across all of these different streaming services, those $10 and $15 a month add up quickly. Next thing you know; I’m paying the same amount of money per month for a much smaller collection of channels.
There is some variation in the content available from one service to another in general. There are movies that Amazon Prime Video has that Netflix doesn’t and vice versa. That was always the case and will continue to be the case with different providers. The real challenge is with the original shows that each of these services creates, which are exclusive to that provider. The thing is, only Amazon Prime Video has Transparent, Catastrophe, and Bosch. Only Netflix has Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Only Showtime has Shameless, House of Lies, and Ray Donovan. Only HBO has Game of Thrones, and Girls. Only Hulu has The Path.
Finding the Balance
I am all for cutting the cord—or at least making that “cord” a much more customizable a’ la carte approach. I don’t want to be bullied into subsidizing 100 channels I don’t want just so I can have two or three I do. But, if the alternative is to subscribe to the channels I want in a one-off a’ la carte basis at a rate of $10 to $15 each, that doesn’t work so well either.
There are maybe ten channels I watch with any consistency. At the current rate, I would end up paying $100 to $150 per month to subscribe to those channels as standalone subscriptions—assuming they were all available as such in the first place. That monthly cost meets or exceeds the cost of just signing up for premium cable with all the pay channels in the first place—even if you aren’t going to use 95 percent of the channels you’re paying for. Except, you’d still have to subscribe to Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Hulu separately in order to view their exclusive shows still.
As the idea of cutting the cord evolves and matures, it may come down to just making a decision rather than buying them all. Perhaps Netflix has enough to offer that I don’t really need to see the exclusive content from Amazon Prime Video or Hulu. There are only so many hours in a day anyway. In order to make cord cutting preferable and viable in the long run, though, the standalone channels should probably be more in the $5 per month range. That way you can choose your 10 or 15 favorites and still keep costs in line rather than just cutting the cord on principle while still spending the same money.