Amazon Prime Offers Two Subscriptions Now

With TV/cable networks battling with their online video rivals for your streaming love, Amazon has very recently stirred the pot even more with their latest power move. This could spell trouble for Netflix.

In order to give their customers more control over how they spend their money at the e-commerce giant’s website, they’ve offered up two Amazon Prime membership options. Available now are

• A full featured Amazon Prime account for $10.99, or
• A stripped-down Amazon Prime Video only account for $8.99 a month

The difference (other than the price of course) is that the latter is strictly just for streaming video hence the name. Should you want all the free shipping and extra perks with your video from Prime – the $10.99 plan is what you’ll need. As a reminder, Prime accounts before this curveball from Amazon where available only as an annual membership plan. At first it was $79 then they moved to $99 where the annual price currently sits. Netflix currently offers no annual membership plan.

This may give them the edge over Netflix…..or it may not. In the real world, it may depend on how consumers will want to part with their money. When you focus on the math you end up still saving money with an annual membership to Amazon Prime for the $99 a year plan – which includes Prime Video and all the bells and whistles. Take a look:

• $99 annual fee for Amazon Prime (includes streaming video)
• $10.99 / month for Amazon Prime (includes streaming video) = around $132 / year
• $9.99*/ month for a Netflix subscription (streaming only) = around $120 / year
• $8.99 / month for Amazon Prime Video (only streaming video) = around $108 / year

*TheHollywoodReporter states Netflix’s standard plan will increase to $9.99 in a few weeks

So in the end, which consumer type will win more of the streaming business? Are consumers more comfortable giving up money by the month or simply biting the bullet and dropping a large chunk once a year? $100 for an annual Amazon Prime membership may not sound like a lot to part with but where I come from, $100 is a $100. It can certainly make you think twice that’s for sure. And let’s not forget about Hulu. They’re attending this online streaming party too and right now they currently offer two monthly subscription plans. The more popular one includes no commercials (for the most part) at $11.99 a month. Or around $144 a year.

Damn. And movie tickets are how much again?