Amazon Prime Will Soon Be More Popular Than Cable TV (recode.net) 116
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Recode: Someday soon, more U.S. households will be subscribers of Amazon Prime than cable or satellite TV, according to recent estimates of Amazon's popular shipping and entertainment service. According to estimates from Morningstar, nearly 79 million U.S. households now have an Amazon Prime membership*, up from around 66 million at the end of last year. That compares to a projected 90 million U.S. households that will pay for cable or satellite TV this year, according to S&P Global. According to these estimates, more U.S. households may have an Amazon Prime subscription than a pay TV subscription as soon as next year. The implication here is not that Amazon's Prime Video service is more popular than TV; the main reason most people subscribe to Amazon Prime is still the fast delivery of products.
Re:Amazon Prime can go DiaF (Score:5, Insightful)
I canceled my subscription when they started adding all of the other features. If they want my business again, they can offer separate services at lower individual prices.
So, you cancelled your Amazon Prime subscription at $99 per year because it was getting better with more added services?
Isn't that like saying that you don't want the car with the leather seats, blind-spot warning, and backup camera for the same price as the basic model simply because there are too many features? I guess I'm missing something...
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First, they do offer separate services generally. You can buy a Twitch subscription separately, or you can pay for shipping your goods every time you make an order, or you can digitally rent (or buy) each show you watch individually. Each of those individual actions is cheaper than a Prime subscription. Is there some service you want that you can't get without Prime? Or do you just want an intermediate price for intermediate bundles of services?
Second, your argument is based on the following irrational
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You are being intentionally stupid. I only want 2 day shipping. I don't want TV shows about transsexuals or all the other garbage that's included now. I buy stuff from amazon once or twice a week, so saying I can get the same two day shipping for $79 by buying ala carte 2-day shipping is factually wrong.
I think you are missing the point. It is impossible for Amazon to 2-day ship stuff to you once or twice a week all year long for $79 (or even $99). They still have to pay UPS, Fedex, etc... In order for your Prime to exist at the sub $100 range, Amazon either has to raise the price of the products it is shipping or find infrequent users to subsidize the frequent users. The "other garbage" that you complain about is stuff that Amazon can provide very cheap in order to hook more infrequent shoppers. The
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It's not impossible, but it does depend on the details involved. Amazon's shipping money doesn't just come from Prime, it also charges the businesses that are offering their products as Prime Eligible.
Indeed, on some items you can pretty blatantly see the hidden pricing... just look at any Prime Eligible item that is also available as an add-on item.
I don't know if this is enough to make up for every possible pattern of shipment, but I think there are definitely some patterns of weekly shipments that Amazon
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When prime first started, they shipped things like automotive flywheels, 2 day, for free. For significantly less than local parts stores were asking.
That had to be brutal, they did fix that.
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Yeah, 'cause a la carte is working so well in the CATV world. I've got 357 channels of which I only care about 5 or 6. I see your point, but for $99 a year, I get my money's worth out of the shipping and the music and TV is just a plus. Their music service *is* annoying as they have pushed some songs into my play list that I didn't want and won't let me delete and they keep moving songs I do like to their music unlimited service which I won't pay for.
They can "lose" money to keep a customer loyal (Score:2)
> I'd be very surprised if Amazon profited off of literally every
> Prime subscription vs. users just getting the same stuff a la carte. They have to offer Prime to those people as an opportunity cost to get Prime to others.
They can, and perhaps do, "lose" money in that most customers, prime gets them less than what ala carte shipping would get them for the same items. Prime isn't, and shouldn't be, valued that way by Amazon.
The point, I think, is that ala carte customers will buy a few items from Am
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> I'd be very surprised if Amazon profited off of literally every
> Prime subscription vs. users just getting the same stuff a la carte. They have to offer Prime to those people as an opportunity cost to get Prime to others.
They can, and perhaps do, "lose" money in that most customers, prime gets them less than what ala carte shipping would get them for the same items. Prime isn't, and shouldn't be, valued that way by Amazon.
The point, I think, is that ala carte customers will buy a few items from Amazon, a few from Walmart, some from eBay, few from Tiger Direct, some from Crutchfield ... Ala carte customers can easily drift away from using Amazon at all. Once people pay $99 for Prime, they are likely to go to Amazon first for almost all online purchases. That, I think, is the point of Amazon Prime. The main value for Amazon isn't getting the $99, it's havimg a customer committed to Amazon.
Exactly. If the average customer pays $99 for prime but then because of that sunk cost buys a majority of their stuff from amazon, even if it costs Amazon $150 worth of shipping on average for that customer, they still were able to "buy" and lock in a loyal customer for only $51 per year. The other offerings like video are just ways to tip the scale so people pay the $99. Once people pay the $99 even if it's for video and not for the shipping, they have something they paid for so are likely to want to "g
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Costs went up. Price stayed the same.
The difference between prices and costs is pretty basic microeconomics.
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he cancelled because the price went up.. BECAUSE of all the extra bullshit (that they aren't interested in).
amazon rolls it all together to build a user base for that crap. but the real joke will be when they do start charging extra for this and that and everything else ON TOP of the base prime (which of course will stay priced higher, because fuck the customer).
The Prime subscription price went up 3 years ago from a whopping $79 a year to a whopping $99 a year, a $20 increase, the cost of one Blu-Ray. Watch one movie, read three books, or order one heavy item (i.e. an uninterruptible power supply, etc.) on Amazon Prime and you've made your money back. If he had Amazon Prime, he was ordering stuff through Amazon and getting free shipping. Some of that stuff was likely heavy and would have cost more than $20 for shipping...
You are right that It's quite possible t
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it wasn't always $99/year
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The person you're replying to is anonymous, so he/she may never notice your response.
The Amazon Prime fee used to be $79 per year. They added features, but they also increased that fee to $99. Also, if you were a non-prime member, you could usually ship things for free if you went over $25, now I believe that limit is $50. Not to mention the fact that the shipping delay for non-prime free shipping always seemed to be artificially elongated in order to make Prime membership especially seem more attractive in
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UPS does the same artifical delay tactic. I once saw a label on a UPS package that said "Don't deliver SDS first day".
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I cancelled when they showed movies I JUST WATCHED on the Watch Next list. I can't get rid of that shit.
6 months later I need to buy stuff so I get prime again, check out the rec lists, and there's like a million things I want to watch in a row. A week later, THEY ARE ALL STILL THERE after watching them. All.
Diaf indeed. Slowly, as is your pace. Netflix wins here.
I have Prime and the selection sucks (Score:2)
Amazon Prime has a long way to go if they want to keep with cable TV. They have a horrible selection of shows and generally it's like 1 or 2 seasons, with you needing to rent/buy the rest. Netflix & Hulu have way more decent content to watch.
If Amazon Prime wants to be better then cable TV, then they need to start securing better content.
Re:I have Prime and the selection sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
I dare you to try to find something to watch.
It's a struggle to sift out Prime content from rental content from digital purchase content.
The entire time you're trying to find something, you have to be vigilant to ensure that the things you are looking at are in fact included with Prime. Just browsing to find something interesting isn't an option, like with cable TV.
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It's a struggle to sift out Prime content from rental content from digital purchase content.
Have you tried the "Included with Prime" section of Amazon Video?
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It's a struggle to sift out Prime content from rental content from digital purchase content.
Have you tried the "Included with Prime" section of Amazon Video?
I haven't look at Amazon Video for months, but I'm going to guess that the "Included with Prime" section is still abysmal.
I don't know. If you call Waterworld and Salt abysmal then I guess so...
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I agree - although Netflix is worse.
Amazon isn't terrible for stumbling over something you might want to watch. They really, really need to make a way to only show free stuff though (even just a "row" of free stuff would be a good start. They also need the 'profile' feature of Netflix so my kids can look at something age-appropriate (and can't see stuff I'm not going to pay for).
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Also worth noting that their UI is atrocious.
I dare you to try to find something to watch.
It's a struggle to sift out Prime content from rental content from digital purchase content.
The entire time you're trying to find something, you have to be vigilant to ensure that the things you are looking at are in fact included with Prime. Just browsing to find something interesting isn't an option, like with cable TV.
Amazon Prime told me that its top movies were Waterworld and Salt. Its as if they have no clue at all.
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Agreed, their video search bites pretty bad. The interface (on the playstation 3) is extra extra slow now b/c if you go to the "right" it takes time to load, and if that was an accident, you have to wait 5 or 10 seconds to go back to the "left" where the lists are. HATE IT.
With Netflix, they also screwed when they updated the Playstation 3 app/prog a year or two ago, so that you can't "page sideways" through lists with the fastforward buttons (I use the PS3 remote).
Two things I do like on Amazon though:
1. "
Subscribers vs. Popular (Score:5, Insightful)
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Subscribers does not mean popular. It comes with flat rate shipping.
Wow, you read TFS!
The point isn't that Amazon Prime Video is more popular than cable. The point is that Amazon Prime as a thing is more popular than cable. It's like saying something is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Great how? Answer, popularity.
Prediction for Fire TV (Score:2)
Amazon gives up on pushing Fire TV devices and makes a deal with Apple for Apple TV to be the main standalone Prime Video access device. This happens in September or October this year when Apple announces the new 4K Apple TV.
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So you think, if and when Apple TV catches up, Amazon will just drop out of the market? Why? Makes no sense. They've already got a superior product and are a year ahead based on product release dates.
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It sounds like they are saying that when Apple TV goes live with this new Amazon Prime, the Amazon Prime Video app on my android tablet will get nerfed or simply shitcanned. If and when that happens is when I'll decide if I want to continue with Amazon Prime. I definitely won't buy the Apple product to continue if that happens.
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Every Amazon device was highly promoted on Prime Day, but the Fire TV didn't get mentioned at all. Meanwhile at Apple's WWDC in June, a new refresh of Apple TV for the fall was mentioned along with Amazon's TV apps on Apple TV. Add these together and you get my prediction.
Apple TV has big market share. An alliance between Apple and Amazon on streaming video would be advantageous to both companies.
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Amazon had prime day deals on their new TV's with amazon fire built in. In fact a 50 inch 4k tv with a sound bar, antenna, and firetv built in for $399 is an amazing deal.
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Yeah, but that's useless for people who aren't buying a new TV. A lot more people would buy a Fire TV stick or a Fire TV box, but Amazon wasn't very interested in selling those products yesterday.
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The fire stick is popular enough they don't need to. The last time I was in best buy there was a limit of 2 per customer.
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Apple TV has 5%. Fire TV has 12%, Roku has 18%. https://9to5mac.com/2017/04/03... [9to5mac.com]
He's dead, the reality distortion field has collapsed, get on with it.
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Yes.
You see the same link I do...I'd guess it was based on statistics gathered from places like Amazon and Netflix. If so, it's based on what the player identifies itself as.
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Apple TV is one of the least popular streaming devices out there. Amazon giving Apple exclusivity for Prime Video would not be an equitable trade and Apple would be paying out the nose for that kind of deal.
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also in the news pigs will be flying backwards! I don't use or like Amazon but why the fuck would they give up market domination to be locked into a niche that forces them to give up huge amounts of control with for no reason.
For a special deal with Apple that gives Amazon most of what they want. For better access to people who actually spend money rather than trying to get things for free and then buying the cheapest thing available when there's no free version.
Amazon doesn't have "market domination" on streaming video. Amazon trails Netflix and HBO and Comcast and Charter in the US. They're also nowhere near the leader in non-US markets. An alliance with Apple would be a big boost to both companies. It especially helps Am
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Apple customers are chumps. You're finally right about something.
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How many are using videos though? (Score:2)
Although I've been a Prime member for many years, I've watched a handful of videos on Prime over the years - so comparing them to cable subscribers is I feel really stretching things. I feel like there is no way they have the viewership that Netflix does...
The Prime video app is really not good. It also doesn't help they have no AppleTV app (but they are about to change that). I'm sure slowly over time viewership will ramp up, but they are not there yet...
Yeah, but CATV competition is like (Score:2, Funny)
"They don't like paying over $100/month for a pretty basic package loaded with useless channels? Fuck 'em. Watch them cry when they invite friends over to their house."
"They didn't pay their bill on time? Fuck 'em. Cut off their service immediately, even if the big game was on."
"They're having service problems? We'll send someone over at OUR convenience. They better be home all day because our guys have lots of stops to make and they can't make appointments."
"They want to cancel their service? Don't l
Conflation. (Score:4, Funny)
This conflates accessibility with actual use under the term "popularity". I have yet to hear anyone say, "hey, did you watch that show on Amazon Prime?" but I've heard plenty of people talking about stuff on cable tv. Similarly, I have yet to hear anyone talk about how they eat their own shit for dinner despite 100% of people having access to their own shit. -_-
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The story simply states that the number of Amazon Prime subscribers will soon surpass the number of cable subscribers. It doesn't say anything about how much those people use the service.
Hey, did you watch that show on Amazon Prime The Man in the High Castle?
There, now you've heard it so shut your needlessly pedantic bitch mouth.
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The Man in the High Castle is pretty good. Season 1 was a little slow, but season 2 was excellent.
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Nazi environmentalists on acid was a cool twist.
More Popular Than Cable TV! (Score:1)
Seriously? Dude, syphilis is more popular than Cable TV.
Won't last (Score:2)
You get it with Amazon Prime now but in the future it will become tiered
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Not bad from what I've seen. Most same day shipments I've done in the Seattle area took almost two weeks.
This is Seattle, so to be fair their Internet is probably dialup and it took 2 weeks for them to catch up with the backlog of orders they get via their online system.
Pretty Soon (Score:1)
Yup. Pretty soon your wives are going to be sleeping with the Amazon drone. Just like the milk man did to our wives back then. Only way you can do away with him is to kill Amazon drone. But then again, you wouldn't do that. Yup. Better just let Amazon drone do whatever he wants. Maybe he'll get bored of sleeping with your wives. Yup.
So much whining... (Score:1)
Amazon Prime (Score:2)