Amazon has launched its lauded subscription-based Prime delivery service in Canada. The all-you-can-eat delivery service offers users free two-day delivery across the country, though it offers a more stripped-down version of the retailer's own offering in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Amazon has stopped offering its customers a monthly payment option for its Prime service. The company recently included an option for US customers to pay $8 per month instead of $80 per year for the two-day delivery and Prime Instant Video streaming service, but has since switched it back to yearly-only.
Amazon is testing out a different payment system for its Prime service. Traditionally set at $80 per year, the unlimited free two-day delivery service has been changed to allow for a monthly payment of $8 instead of a lump sum. While easier for customers to pay, opting away from the yearly payment works out to be almost $17 more expensive.
Amazon has released long-anticipated mobile app for the iPad, Instant Video. The title lets users watch a "selection of top Prime Instant Video titles" from the Amazon Prime subscription catalog, with an option to download content for offline viewing. Also present in the app is access to a watchlist and queue, along with automatic access to Season Pass TV episodes on the day after they have been broadcast.
Amazon drew flak on Thursday after it was accused of and later confirmed inflating its Amazon Prime video catalog. The company acknowledged to Fast Company that it counts each individual TV episode as a show, leading to even just one long-running TV series representing a large part of its catalog. A roster of 17,000 titles claimed by Amazon amounted to 1,875 titles, all but 150 of which were movies.
Amazon has just revealed a deal with Discovery Communications that will let Amazon Prime members stream content from the media company. This includes episodes from non-current seasons from Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science and Military Channel, and other content that dates back 25 years. Some of the available shows will include Dirty Jobs, Say Yes To The Dress, and Whale Wars.
Amazon won't split its streaming video service from Prime Instant Video in the near future despite rumors to the contrary. Brad Beale, Head of Digital Video Content Acquisition at Amazon, said during a Wednesday interview with GigaOM that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Previously, a letter to shareholders from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings mentioned that he expects Amazon to introduce a service that would undercut its own.
In November, Amazon launched its Lending Library for Kindle owners. Today the online retailer released statistics illustrating the success of the initiative. For the month of December, the first full month that online lending catalog was available, readers borrowed more than 295,000 e-books.
Disney and its ABC division on Monday recommitted themselves to Internet video Monday with separate deals for Amazon Instant Video and Netflix. Both deals give it access to all prior seasons of both active and recently ended shows as well as back catalog access. Amazon's deal gives it both access to on-demand Instant Video as well as unlimited access for Prime subscribers.
Amazon has announced a new licensing agreement with Disney-ABC Television that will give Amazon Prime subscribers access to a slew of new content. Shows will come from the group's ABC Studios, Disney Channel, ABC Family and Marvel. The new content is aimed at bolstering the already strong content line-up available for Amazon's Kindle Fire Android tablet with owners receiving free access for one month, right out of the box.
Amazon and PBS have expanded the scope of their video content deals. Under the new agreement, Amazon Prime members will have access over 1,000 episodes of PBS programs. Amazon is beefing up its content library in anticipation of shipping its newest reader/tablet, the $199 Kindle Fire, on November 15.
Amazon's at least proposed strategy for subscription e-book downloads was validated through a source code discovery in the Kindle management page. Mentions caught by MobileRead show code strings verifying whether devices are "Prime_eBooks_compatible" as well as references to checked out Prime books. It's implied that, rather than go strictly unlimited, Amazon would have users "borrow" a certain number of books for the $79 outlay of a yearly Prime subscription..
