Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Amazon Launches Video Streaming Service

In January I wrote about Amazon buying a popular European movie streaming service, and how many of us were assuming this meant Amazon would soon be entering into the video streaming business.

Apparently "soon" meant about a month, because Amazon has officially released a video streaming service for their prime members. Although a prime membership on Amazon costs $79 per year, the video streaming service is free, which is a great additional feature.

For those debating whether to go with Netflix, Hulu or Amazon for their streaming needs, that $79 per year makes Amazon the cheapest of the three, at about $6.60 per month.

The downside of Amazon's service right now boils down to two things: clunky navigation and less titles than their established streaming counterparts.

However, I expect Amazon to tweak their system a little bit over the next couple of months, and this is a big first step for the online retailing giant in gaining a solid foothold in the Netflix/Hulu video streaming conglomerate.