Via Business Insider:
Amazon plans to double down on its video content for the rest of the year as it goes to war against Netflix in the online video streaming space.
During its second quarter earnings call, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said that Amazon will “nearly double” its investment in all types of video, while “tripling” the amount of Amazon’s original content, over the rest of the year.
“We’re very happy with the customer adoption of Prime Video…it’s clearly working,” Olsavsky said.
Olsavsky didn’t add more details around the exact dollar amount of the investment or how Prime Video will expand globally. But he basically reaffirmed his comment from last quarter when he said that Amazon would “significantly” increase its video content spend in the backend of the year.
While this is being billed as a “war against Netflix,” it could just as easily be the “war against the cable television dinosaur.”
As people get more choices that don’t yoke them to lousy cable providers, it’s easier and easier to cut the cable cord.
Amazon Prime Video has a distinct advantage for cord-cutters that Netflix doesn’t: many television shows are available for purchase the day after they air. A per-episode or season watch price can be paid. For people who are only into a few shows, this is still cheaper than paying for cable. A lot of these shows aren’t available on Hulu either.
I have both Netflix and Amazon Video, and find I use them about equally right now. If that balance ever tips significantly, one of them is outta here.
There are also add-ons that can be subscribed to through Prime Video like Showtime. Showtime does have a stand-alone subscription now too, but I find it’s just easier to use in the Prime format.
This rapidly shifting video landscape can only be good for consumers, so the faster, the better.
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