Amazon unveiled two new Prime plans on its website, introducing a video-only option for monthly subscribers. The new offering could ramp up the competition between its video service and Netflix. The first new plan costs $8.99 per month to stream TV shows and movies through a video-only version of Prime, while the second runs $10.99 per month for all Prime benefits, including video and music streaming, free two-day shipping on Amazon purchases, and more. Amazon hopes to reach consumers that have been reluctant to pay $99 up front for an annual Prime membership. Continue reading Amazon Offers New Monthly Subs, No Annual Commitment

The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards will air tonight on NBC, this year with a few social media twists. Actor Aaron Paul, nominated again for his role in “Breaking Bad,” is thanking his fans with another Hollywood scavenger hunt. He recently posted a photo on Instagram promising signed scripts, posters and more. Facebook is providing an oversized tablet designed to let celebs answer questions from fans during the festivities. And Google has posted TV filming locations that you can check out on Street View. Continue reading More Social Interaction Surrounding This Year’s Emmy Awards

Amazon recently released statistics that show its Prime Instant Video streaming service has tripled since last year, and is now more popular than Apple and Hulu. Despite its growth, Amazon is still dramatically far behind Netflix and YouTube. According to a recent report from Qwilt, a provider of online-video delivery and caching solutions, Netflix is currently the number one streaming video site, representing more than 57 percent of the streaming market in March, while YouTube follows in second. Continue reading Streaming Video: Amazon No Netflix, But Tops Apple and Hulu

Netflix’s stock value has increased 178 percent during 2013, one of the best performing companies on the S&P 500 index. In order to maintain its edge, Netflix may need to be more like Amazon than HBO, with more of a focus on spending than a fixation on profit growth. But Netflix’s practice of dropping unpopular content may give competitor Amazon a new opportunity to secure exclusive rights to additional programming and gain ground over Netflix. Continue reading Netflix Spending More On Content While Dropping Content

Amazon reportedly has plans to launch a television set-top box that would stream video over the Internet to televisions and provide access to the company’s expanding video services, including the Amazon Video on Demand store. The new device, expected as early as sometime this year, would compete with Apple’s set-top box, Apple TV, in addition to video-delivery products from Roku, Boxee, Microsoft and Sony. Continue reading Could Amazon Set-Top Box be an All-In-One Media Center?

Amazon’s X-Ray feature, which uses the company’s IMDb database of content to add real-time actor information to Amazon’s Instant Video service, will expand to include TV show viewing, the company announced on Wednesday. To start, the X-Ray feature will be available for 13 shows including popular hits like “Downton Abbey,” “The Walking Dead,” “Breaking Bad” and “Game of Thrones.” Amazon and IMDb are working to expand the service. Continue reading X-Ray: Actor ID Feature from Amazon Expands to TV Shows

According to Netflix, one in ten of its streaming subscribers have watched its exclusive drama “House of Cards.” On average, each of those viewers has taken in six to 13 episodes so far, of the 13 total available in season one – all of which was made available at one time. This delivery approach intended to capitalize on viewers’ desire to binge-watch entire seasons in short periods of time. Some see this distribution model as a risky proposition. Continue reading Distributing Entire TV Seasons All at Once Has Downsides