The revised Apple TV box has been announced—it’s slimmer, cheaper, and potentially far more useful than the outgoing (and low-selling) model. Within a day of Apple’s launch, Amazon began promoting $0.99 episodes through its Video on Demand service. The key difference? You own them.
Amazon: why rent episodes when you can own them?
As we’ve reported before, Google’s expansion of YouTube’s online store and the Apple TV rely on higher prices, but the lure of fresh content. Movies will release to Apple TV the same day as their physical disc releases and episodes are available as soon as the next day. Many consumers may find the extra cost worth it, but some are already questioning whether it’s worth paying to rent when most people already pay for cable service—and could easily have recorded the given episode on their free (or heavily subsidized) DVR.
Amazon seems to have captured the public skepticism about services based around rentals—renewing investment in their somewhat stagnant Video on Demand service. While many consumers will let the catalogues available with the various services sway their decisions, the VoD service offers several key advantages over Google TV and Apple TV, though with library focused on FOX, ABC, and BBC shows.
Amazon isn’t trying to push new hardware. Most consumers already have a lot of media devices and a service has to be rather compelling in what it offers for people to shell out cash for another box to sit in the living room. Amazon VoD allows consumers to stream on PC or Roku, or download if they’d rather watch offline and use their proprietary ‘Unbox’ media player.
As Apple learned with iTunes, $0.99 is a magic price point. Digital downloads move much faster once the price hits $0.99. Plus, Amazon isn’t just pushing single episodes with their service—complete seasons can be purchased with a single click, at competitive prices. For instance, LOST season six can be purchased in HD for $16.83. The Blu-ray equivalent, by comparison, currently runs $40.99.
You own it—and the ownership experience is easy. Amazon emphasizes the streaming side of its VoD service, but also allows full downloading to watch offline. A nice feature is that it’s not either-or. Episodes purchased and watched via streaming can be download offline. Episodes I’ve already downloaded can be watched via stream if I’m using a different computer. I own the access, and Amazon is happy to provide it.
Stay tuned for more developments in the quickly fluctuating market of digital TV and movies.
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