I’ve cancelled my cable TV and use ROKU to watch stuff on HULU and Netflix streaming. Amazon prime is $79.00 per year. How does Amazon’s free content (after paying the $79) compare to HULU and Netflix? Does it have TV shows and movies the others don’t have or would it essentially be duplicating the same content I already get?
I started with Amazon Prime, and ended up signing up for Netflix for a specific show. I don’t know that I would have paid for Prime just for that, but I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon, so the shipping plus the streaming content worked out for me.
I tend to look for something to watch rather than looking for specific things, so I haven’t done a real comparison. I find that they do have different things. I’ve been going through episodes of Silk Stalkings on Amazon. It’s not available on Netflix. It is not a good show, but it’s fun nostalgia. Amazon has Daria, which I can’t find on Netflix. Same for 21 Jump Street, but that used to be on Hulu. It looks like Amazon has episodes of Dead Like Me and Netflix only has the movie. Both appear to have The X-Files, Arrested Development, and Firefly. Amazon doesn’t have The Walking Dead, and Netflix only has a few episodes. Netflix appears to have Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but Amazon doesn’t have it in Prime. Neither of them have the HBO series that I would like to watch. You can see what’s available on Amazon’s website. It’s actually much easier for me to do it that way, then run a search on the TV or Blu-Ray when I get ready to watch it.
Netflix is a lot easier for me to navigate from my TV and allows you to build a queue. Amazon has added a “watchlist” but I don’t know if that’s accessible from my TV. Amazon has cut out far more often than Netflix for me, but I don’t know why or if others have that problem.
I will probably end up keeping both until I’ve run through what I want to watch on Netflix. I imagine I’ll give up on Netflix first, because I like the shipping benefits I get with Amazon. If there are specific things I want to watch, I could always pay for them through regular Amazon streaming or On Demand.
I watch tons of stuff on Amazon Prime. I don’t have Netflix, but there is not a lot of overlap with Hulu. You don’t need to subscribe to Amazon Prime to see what’s available. Just go to the Amazon Prime Instant Video page and you can browse the selection. If you search for a specific show, it will show as “Prime Members: $0.00” if it is free with Prime.
I would say if you just want the video, go with Netflix. I have both right now, but I mainly stick with Netflix. Right now the streaming is more of a bonus to Prime.
NB: you can only use Amazon Video if you pay for Prime. If somebody else does and shares their account with you to get the free shipping, you can’t access it.
We have Hulu Plus, Neftlix Streaming, and Amazon Prime and we watch them all about equally. If I go through a marathon on some show, I’ll tend to stick to that one for awhile, but in the grand scheme I think they all provide shows that the others don’t have that are worth the premiums.
I find something good to watch on Hulu Plus 10x as often as on Amazon Prime. However, my own DVD collection weighs very heavily to TV shows vs movies, so YMMV.
You can use piratealts.com to compare prices and check availability for individual titles on Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.