Amazon Prime picked the right time to make this announcement, at least from my perspective. I’m just starting my Christmas shopping (Let’s get real … this translates to I’m starting to think about the shopping, but won’t start until the first or second week in December), and they are suddenly making their Amazon Prime service that both streams videos and offers free two-day shipping for a low monthly price like Netflix and Hulu.
I don’t even watch Hulu. I don’t even know if I ever have. Yet, I get socked with a monthly bill for it. My son and I both watch Netflix, though, religiously. Because of that, I had been considering dropping Hulu and its monthly charge. Amazon Prime is now entering my thoughts, causing me to think perhaps I should cancel Hulu and get Amazon Prime.
Not that Amazon Prime is new. It’s always been there, and I’ve thought about signing up before. It not only offers the streaming of TV and movies, but also gives you a free Kindle rental every month, instant Kindle downloads, and free two-day shipping on eligible products at Amazon. It seems like Amazon Prime has some extras going for it. The only negative is that it’s not offered on AppleTV, while Netlfix and Hulu both are. However, you can still stream it to your Apple device and then bounce it back to your television through the Apple TV. It just isn’t as convenient.
That being said, my only reason for not joining before was because I didn’t want to pay for a third streaming service. I can’t remember for sure what the price was, but it wasn’t the price holding me back; it was only the desire to not pay for streaming services I’m not going to use. Now The price is current at $79 a year, or at least it was for me. 9to5 is reporting that while some people see the $79 a year offer, others are seeing the more expensive $7.99 a month offer. Both offer one month for free.
I tried to jump on the $79 a year offer out of fear mine would switch to $7.99, but I have to buy something at Amazon in order to complete the process. Not that it’s that hard to find something to buy there, but I really should get that Christmas shopping started, and why not do that when I’m getting one month for free?
Amazon is definitely promoting this at the right time. I was ready to jump thinking how great a deal it was even though I had passed it up before. However, it’s the holiday season. They have some great marketing there at Amazon.