Lights, camera . . . Amazon?
The online retailer is reportedly looking to expand its video production arm. Look out, Netflix.
Should Amazon (AMZN) become a movie and television producer? The company already makes some small films through its Amazon Studios arm.Now, it may be hiring people to help develop half-hour comedies. It's an interesting move and not all that unexpected as Amazon ratchets up the competition with Netflix (NFLX), which is busy producing its own original content. We wrote about this developing competition before.
Amazon already has some experience with its streaming service and has deep pockets to bolster its content. The company decided to make its streaming service a stand-alone service sometime back, and recently, it dropped some hints that it may look at developing original content. Even Intel (INTC) is starting to look at the lucrative streaming market.
Offering unique and original content is how networks such as HBO and ESPN have thrived and developed into huge businesses.
Amazon has the money to spend on developing or acquiring content, and that could make things a little bit difficult for Netflix. A large portion of Netflix's estimated value depends upon how well the company does in the U.S., which in turn primarily depends upon the growth in streaming subscribers. New features from Amazon and others could potentially put the brakes on this growth for Netflix.
This also sparks an interesting question: What proportion of the total online viewing will the original content eventually represent?
Online-streaming companies will have to strike a careful balance. A small amount of original content may not be enough to lure incremental subscribers, thereby leading to unnecessary spending. High amounts of original content may put these companies in direct competition with pay-TV service providers that have traditionally made the original programming available through pay-TV packages.
Our price estimate for Netflix stands at $133, implying a premium of 25% to the market price.
Amazon Prime video on demand, or VOD doesn't support many Samsung devices. I contacted Amazon about this lack of a Samsung app and they just don't seem to care. Samsung is a big TV and DVD blue ray player manufacturer and they don't have a Amazon Prime VOD app. For that reason I won't pay for their service period. I' not going to buy another streaming device to use Amazon Prime VOD.
Netflix has a app for just about everything video streaming capable blue ray DVD player I can think of, so that makes them a better choice for me.
I love graphs like this one. It doesn't mean a thing except at a marketing meetings when the bonuses are passed out.
Seriously, I am really struggling with Netflix streaming. I have had it for a couple of years now, and there is very, very, little on there. It seems to be mainly B movies at the best, and a fair selection of C's and D's. Zombie-Croc v's Shark-Zilla type garbage with the lead role played by the brother of the guy who was the bus driver in Forrest Gump.
I would cancel it except my little girl likes to watch cartoons...
We have Netflix Streaming, Boxee Box & Ooma (free phone) which all work nicely together. All of our $75 Blu-ray players stream Netflix from any room in the house & we have a good attic antenna for local HD. I have not subscribed to Hulu Plus, so to watch anything decent we have to dig deep into the repository directories of Boxee to find what we want. Although there are more menus to click through than on a typical DVR, most everything we watch can be found within a minute.
One wish is that our Wii or Boxee Box could serve as a DVR by connecting a USB drive. This would be simple to add but is held-back by legal issues... Boxee Box just came-out with a USB tuner but it is useless unless Boxee can serve as a DVR - we can just keep using our TV's tuner... For instance, right now I cannot record sports or NASCAR. With TIVO, I could do some lawn work and start watching the game about an hour into it. By the time the game ended, I was caught-up. Therefore I do miss the simplicity of my TIVO (1st DVR) but do NOT miss our $130 monthly cable/Internet/phone bill.
Just reading comments and just wanted to clear up something. Amazon Prime itself does not offer rentals. If you use just the Amazon Prime portion of the instant videos section you will be shown all available free offerings for your account. Amazon Instant Video is their rental service and if you take the second to read what is on the screen you would see that there is a big difference in how they present them to you.
You should pay attention to what you are clicking on. Words mean something. Words together mean even more. Not everything can/should be a picture.
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