As exclusively tipped by ChannelNews Amazon Prime has launched in Australia with an introductory price of $4.23 per month for the first six months. The move has seen Stan and Foxtel partners move to slam the new Amazon service.
News Corporation that owns 50% of Foxtel has already come out with a story claiming ‘Amazon TV finally launches should you bother?’ Meanwhile Fairfax Media who owns 50% of streaming content Company Stan has ran a similar negative story ‘Amazon Prime Video just launched in Australia. But is it worth your time?
What else do you expect from two Companies that have become nothing but mouth pieces for Stan and Foxtel. It was News Corp who failed to report the recent massive slump in Foxtel profits.
Both media organisations have slammed the content which at $2.50 a month is a value for money proposition considering you get access to several Amazon originals such as the Grand Tour.
This is the show that has become the most pirated show in UK history.
Amazon scooped up the former Top Gear stars after Jeremy Clarkson was dropped by the BBC.
The series which $300M to make are brilliantly and they alone are worth $2.50 a month.
The main draw for Amazon Prime is its original content, including the fantastic Transparent starring Jeffrey Tambor as a transitioning woman, and the likes of The Man in the High Castle, Mozart in the Jungle, Bosch and Hand of God.
These shows are available on Stan but it will cost you over $10 a month to get access to this content.
The big difference for Foxtel and Stan is that Amazon can offer a host of other services, and once you have signed up the offers from Amazon will just keep flowing in. They include music content as well as access to a host of Amazon services that in the past have not been available in Australia.
Amazon announced that its Prime Video service is now available to Australians, along with users in more than 200 other countries worldwide, at an introductory price of US$2.99 (A$4.23) a month for the first six months. After that it will move to the full charge of US$5.99 (A$8.48) a month.
Amazon says those who sign up can watch any time anywhere through the Amazon Prime Video app on Android and iOs phones and tablets, Amazon’s Fire tablets, LG and Samsung smart TVs or online at PrimeVideo.com.
Users can control how much data they use when streaming and downloading video by choosing between Good, Better and Best visual quality settings, Amazon says. All are said to use Amazon Prime Video’s latest compression technology to use less data without reducing visual quality.
At sub $5 a month Amazon Prime could quickly sign up over 2M Australian subscribers, which will give them bragging rights over Stan, Foxtel Streaming services and Netflix. Analysts claim that this will deliver an excellent base for Amazon to market their store offering to when it launches in mid-2017.
What is interesting is that PR Company Weber Shandwick handles the PR for Amazon Kindle.
However, requests for information re Amazon Prime are referred to another so called PR Company called Golin which just happens to be owned by the Interpublic Group who also own Webber Shandwick.
On the Golin Sydney site, the contact for Golin is given as Ava Lawler whose LinkedIn page describes her as Managing Director of Weber Shandwick’s Australian operations. There is no Golin Australia web site.
Among Webber Shandwick clients are Sonos who competes up against Amazon audio products, Netgear and several other clients who could find that they have a conflict when Amazon finally launches in Australia. The Company also handles PR for Lenovo who make tablets that compete with Amazon Kindle tablets.
Webber Shandwick claim that the Golin team in the USA are handling the Australian launch of Amazon Prime. This has resulted in several media missing out on press releases.
There are also shows such as Justified, The Path, The Shield, and Seinfeld available on the new Amazon Prime.
As soon as Xmas is over expect to see some major streaming app upgrades from the likes of Apple TV, Google Chromecast and Fetch TV, as well as on both Xbox and the Sony PlayStation. These upgrades will allow users to access Prime TV.
I am currently watching the Grand Tour series on my notebook that I plug into a HDMI port to my 4K TV I have also watched it on my tablet.
If you have certain models of Samsung or LG smart TVs, you’re in luck.
Future Amazon offerings include an “untitled mafia series” from Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell, an “untitled anthology series” from Mad Men’s Matthew Weiner; and the deadpan comedy Highston, from executive producer Sacha Baron Cohen and the husband-wife directing duo behind Little Miss Sunshine, about a 19-year-old dude (Lewis Pullman, son of Bill) who suffers celebrity delusions.
