The era of Blockbuster is dead. Even as we’re shoveling DVDs and VHS cassettes into a blue-and-yellow coffin, the battle to see who will replace the physical media dinosaur with a digital cinema pipeline straight into your living room is on. On Tuesday, Internet retail titan Amazon threw open the valve on its own solution by launching a long-rumored unlimited streaming service for Amazon Prime subscribers. The deal: Pay for Amazon Prime, which offers free two-day shipping on any Amazon purchase, and get access to 5,000 streaming movies and TV shows bundled in for free.
Though Hulu Plus failed to rattle Netflix supremacy with premium content from major networks, Amazon’s clout may make it the toughest challenger Netflix has ever faced. Is it worth abandoning your Netflix subscription for Amazon? Let’s take a look at the numbers.
Price
Winner: Amazon
True to its reputation as one of the cheapest places to find virtually anything on the Web, Amazon has outpriced Netflix with Amazon Prime. While Netflix’s streaming-only plan runs for an affordable $7.99, Amazon Prime’s $79 annual subscription breaks down to just $6.58 a month. On the flip side, it doesn’t offer the flexibility of monthly billing, so when you’re in, you’re in for a year. Both Netflix and Amazon Prime offer one-month free trials to let potential users dip a toe in the streaming waters before committing.
Library
Winner: Netflix
Amazon may save you a George Washington and change every month, but is it providing the same number of titles? Well, no.
Amazon claims that 5,000 movies and TV shows are eligible for streaming with Amazon Prime, but browsing available Prime content shows just 1,668 movies and 484 TV shows. Huh? That’s about 3,000 shy of the claim. The discrepancy likely comes from counting every episode of every TV show in that 5,000 number. Sly, Amazon.
According to InstantWatcher, Netflix now offers 11,563 streaming titles, including 1,587 TV show seasons and compilations, not episodes. If you want to be remove the ambiguity of TV shows and look at movies alone, that means Netflix offers six times more titles than Amazon.
That’s not to say Amazon offers nothing Netflix doesn’t, though. Cross referencing Amazon’s first page of popular movies turned up seven movies (out of 25) that Netflix didn’t offer streaming: the original Hairspray, Caligula, Analyze This, Scooby Doo in Where’s My Mummy, Les Miserables, Clifford’s Really Big Movie, and Jeremiah Johnson.
Hardware support
Winner: Netflix
Amazon wisely got a head start on hardware adoption by integrating Amazon Video Demand into a ton of set-top devices — 200 to be exact. Now that Amazon Prime streaming has launched, all the same devices will let you grab Prime Instant Streaming content.
Netflix hasn’t given a firm number of devices with Netflix support, but anyone who has browsed the aisles at a home theater store knows that it’s nearly ubiquitous on Internet-connected Blu-ray players, televisions and more. We think the number would total more than 200. Anecdotally, we had no issue finding boxes with Netflix support and no Amazon support, but every single box we could find with Amazon also had Netflix. (Go ahead, try it for yourself through Amazon’s list of supported devices.)
Even if we weren’t counting numbers here, Netflix has a number of key devices nailed, including the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, not to mention the iPhone and iPad. Amazon streaming is missing on all of them.
Also, check out the used DVDs for sale via Amazon private sellers. You can find some amazing deals — especially for DVDs that weren't super-hits. You can't get around the $2.98 shipping fee, but I recently bought one disc for a penny, so you have to compare that expenditure with a rental. If you think you'll watch any flick two or three times, definitely buy it.
NetFlix has a gigantic lead in terms of licenses it has procured, allowing them to stream a more significant number of movies, TV shows, documentaries, foreign language films, vintage, and everything else. As far as the quality test above, I think the NetFlix images show much more detail and scaling of colors. The images on Amazon look dark and washed-out to me.
front page of igoogle, nice guys
For me, $79 is a substantial debt from any one month's budget where $9.99 is not.
True, but $0 is a substantial savings during every other month's budget during the year.
One thing not mentioned is that they there is very little support. There are exceptions, but for the most part if you use linux Netflix doesn't work for you.I bring this up because I've perused four articles on the subject and none have. I know in general terms, Netflix still wins but I can't use it. It would be nice if I could have learned that from an article advising me whether or not to buy it.
I think Amazon should stick to its unique pay-on-demand feature, and expand it, if possible. NetFlix has had to sign agreements with the studios not to rent any new release for 28 days — giving the studios a chance to sell more DVDs during the initial release period. But, folks, while Blockbuster has cut back on its number of outlets, it is not dead, and you can still rent a DVD the same day it is released.
One more category Momentum — Netflix — we're used to it, we have the Sony Blu-Ray with Netflx Instant on it, and we don't flinch when we see the monthly Netflix fee.
Although we buy a lot through Amazon, I'm not sure the shipping bump is worth it. I am usually not in that big of rush and choose the 5 to 7 day free anyway.