Netflix: Amazon Losing $1B A Year in Streaming War

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kawininjazx

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Having a Netflix and Hulu account, I don't find anything good to watch on Amazon for Prime TV and Videos. However, I will occasionally rent a movie off Instant Video. The nice thing is, I can rent a movie for a dollar cheaper and it still looks great, even though it's not "HD".
 

waxdart

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If your ISP has a cap then of course you'll get hit with a bill. In the UK you can get uncapped accounts so you must be able to get that in the US. The netflix selection is a bit crappy here; but it still has some good bits.
 

neiroatopelcc

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[citation][nom]otacon72[/nom]The only way Netflix survives is if ISPs uncap their bandwidth which is never going to happen. All this streaming is all fun and dandy until you get a letter from your ISP saying you exceeded your bandwidth for the month. Several of my friends have already dropped Netflix all together after getting huge data bills. I read somewhere a while ago that L3 was going to start charging Comcast more because of the all the bandwidth Netflix users were sucking up. What is it 40% of all internet bandwidth is being used by Netflix? They should pay more.[/citation]

Dunno about the rest of Europe but here in Denmark Netflix is doing great - I'm not aware of any non torrent related traffic being throttled and since several of the country's electricity suppliers these days supply fiber based internet to homes, we're not really in a position where throttling would cause Netflix not to work.
 

neiroatopelcc

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[citation][nom]waxdart[/nom]If your ISP has a cap then of course you'll get hit with a bill. In the UK you can get uncapped accounts so you must be able to get that in the US. The netflix selection is a bit crappy here; but it still has some good bits.[/citation]
use a vpn connection to a us system to circumvent that - that's what I do when I want to watch channel4 or use the iplayer from bbc
 

upgrade_1977

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I didn't even know Amazon streamed.. I'll stick with Netflix's service. Even though there library is limited I still like how the service works. I much prefer paying a monthly fee and getting the whole library at my disposal versus paying for each purchase.
 

rosen380

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"Netflix said last month that it was currently on track to spend around $2.1 billion on content over the next twelve months. Netflix charges $7.99 USD per month for its video streaming service, and as of March 2012, the company has over 23 million subscribers."

23M x $7.99 = $2.2B, so it doesn't look like Netflix is rolling in cash from streaming either...
 
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The problem with Amazon Prime streaming is that the resolution sucks. Compared to Netflix streaming, which is mostly in HD (720p, which looks great even on my 1080p screen), Amazon is blurry. I try it about twice a year and then forget about it for six months because it is so low-res.
 

Ninjamonkeh

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[citation][nom]rosen380[/nom]"Netflix said last month that it was currently on track to spend around $2.1 billion on content over the next twelve months. Netflix charges $7.99 USD per month for its video streaming service, and as of March 2012, the company has over 23 million subscribers."23M x $7.99 = $2.2B, so it doesn't look like Netflix is rolling in cash from streaming either...[/citation] 2.1 billion over 12months, your math showed what they are making in a month verses spending in a year
 

edogawa

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I like Netflix, it has thousands of great shows and movies, and it's easy to use. I wish Amazon would offer a service like Netflix where everything is free to stream for a monthly flat fee.

Two things that really bug me about Netflix is a lot of their content isn't HD and they don't have the very latest stuff. On the other hand the thing that bugs me about Prime instant video too is that it does not have a lot of stuff I want to watch without paying, and it's not as easy to navigate.

They both have some pros and cons, I am confident in Amazon though.
 

e_davis677

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There's no cap in Canada, love Netflix. I even use US DNS servers to get my uncapped American content which is better than the Canadian because of copyright rules.
 

rosen380

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"2.1 billion over 12months, your math showed what they are making in a month verses spending in a year"

I inadvertently left out the x12 in the text, but the $2.2B reflects it, so all of their servers, electricity and maintenance costs, etc have to be pretty low for it to be profitable.

 

millerm84

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[citation][nom]rosen380[/nom]"2.1 billion over 12months, your math showed what they are making in a month verses spending in a year"I inadvertently left out the x12 in the text, but the $2.2B reflects it, so all of their servers, electricity and maintenance costs, etc have to be pretty low for it to be profitable.[/citation]

Yeah I noticed that too, it's a slim margin of $8.3 million a month unless netflix is combining their overall operating cost into the $2.1 billion number; which didn't appear to be the case.
 

oldboy2508

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otacon72, is Amazon getting a free ride? Do they have deals with all the ISPs? If so, please post a citation otherwise I think you're BSing if you're suggesting that Netflix would be the only one taking a hit.
 

internetlad

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Prime has very few shows that Netflix doesn't. I was already a Prime member so finding out that I could stream via XBOX was icing on the cake. It's good for old kids shows or watching a series that's been off the air for a couple years, but don't expect too many current shows (or recent seasons of current shows, at least)

Netflix on the flip side, has Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, et al. But hey, considering you pay 79 bucks for the whole year with prime, get the prime video service, prime book renting (1 per week i believe) VIA kindle and free 2 day shipping on amazon's website, that's bloody hard to beat.
 

jaquith

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Where's Amazon Prime? Very Poor Device Support! It's not available on my Phone/Tablets, TV's, etc so what good is it. Heck I can stream my HBO, Cinemax, etc on more devices. Listen I have so many options for streaming now that my head spins-off.

Amazon Prime device support - http://www.amazon.com/gp/video/ontv/devices

IF Amazon Prime is on as many diverse devices then when and if that day comes I'll consider it, but for now I have now interest.
 

ddpruitt

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Amazon is building it's arsenal so it can nuke Netflix out of existence.

Netflix know this and it knows it has forever lost the loyalty of customers like me when it decided to screw us over by doubling the fees on DVDs/BluRays. As a result Netflix is bleeding customers and burning through money so fast they don't know what to do, that's were these crazy claims are coming from.

Amazon's interface is clunky and they don't have media center or Android apps, but I'm willing to bet that once they have the content ready they'll remedy these so they can kill off Netflix for good.
 
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