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- cash
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Re: Amazon to Launch Prime Video Channels for Canada
All of these channels were added to my Amazon Prime account today. The thing is the price is the same as if ordering on cable. What is the point?
Last edited by cash (June 4, 2019 6:43 pm)
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Thread Starter- Retaw
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Re: Amazon to Launch Prime Video Channels for Canada
cash wrote:
All of these channels were added to my Amazon Prime account today. The thing is the price is the same as if ordering on cable. What is the point?
Convenience for those not interested in a cable package, I guess. I can see someone wanting to watch Adult Swim without paying Rogers or Bell. I don't know if they'd want 11 other channels attached, though.
- RadioAaron
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Re: Amazon to Launch Prime Video Channels for Canada
What is the point?
For cord-cutters to piecemeal recreate what they had with cable, for more money and less quality. The telcos were going to make the money back one way or the other after-all.
- cash
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Re: Amazon to Launch Prime Video Channels for Canada
What is the point?
For cord-cutters to piecemeal recreate what they had with cable, for more money and less quality. The telcos were going to make the money back one way or the other after-all.
No discount or incentive for Prime members to get any of these channels. I don't see what's in it for Amazon.
Last edited by cash (June 4, 2019 10:53 pm)
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: Amazon to Launch Prime Video Channels for Canada
The incentive to sign up for Prime in the first place in order to add this package, I guess. I thought about it for for half a second. No downside for Amazon, anyway.
- Retaw
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Re: Amazon to Launch Prime Video Channels for Canada
What is the point?
For cord-cutters to piecemeal recreate what they had with cable, for more money and less quality. The telcos were going to make the money back one way or the other after-all.
No discount or incentive for Prime members to get any of these channels. I don't see what's in it for Amazon.
They get a cut of the subscription revenue. Last year, the Channels was [url=]expected to generate $1.7 billion in revenue[/url]. For nominal work, even a small fraction of that is a good chunk of change.
A big point for Amazon is to offer add-on services to Prime as a way to cover any losses from free shipping.
- Leslieville Bill
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Re: Amazon to Launch Prime Video Channels for Canada
I think we've reached peak channels. Even at $3.99 there is not much I would watch on those channel. A lot of the content is old or I can find elsewhere. At most, I might join temporarily to watch a series. It is possible to have too many subscriptions.
- Not an industry person. Just a guy with a love of Toronto radio.
- RadioActive
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Re: Amazon to Launch Prime Video Channels for Canada
I fear the success and spread of online video subscriptions will one day lead to the end of free over the air TV networks like NBC, CBS and ABC. And of course, without them there will be no CTVs or Global, since they feed their programming pipelines. Their ratings have already shrunk and the bleeding continues.
We currently have Netflix, Amazon & CBS All-Access, just to name a few. NBC recently announced it was getting into the subscription streaming game and the Disney juggernaut, which is expected to be huge, is on the horizon. Warner is also working on its own channel, and on and on it goes.
The logic is that they don’t need to sell spot time when you’re essentially paying for the programming to begin with. I don’t personally subscribe to any of the streaming giants at this point, mainly because I don’t have the time to watch all they provide and I would be wasting my money for something I wouldn't be able to use.
Plus I already have more shows saved on my DVR (some, I’m ashamed to admit, going back to 2014!) than I will ever find the time to watch. And then there are the restrictions on what Canadians can see that, while I understand the rights issues, I have always mightily resented.
I believe the day is coming when there will no longer be “free TV” as we currently know it. And as old fashioned as it sounds, as we have to shell out endless amounts of money to watch the three good shows we care about on each service, I think we’ll all literally be poorer for it.
- 6079 Smith W
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Re: Amazon to Launch Prime Video Channels for Canada
I fear the success and spread of online video subscriptions will one day lead to the end of free over the air TV networks like NBC, CBS and ABC. And of course, without them there will be no CTVs or Global, since they feed their programming pipelines. Their ratings have already shrunk and the bleeding continues.
<snip>
I believe the day is coming when there will no longer be “free TV” as we currently know it. And as old fashioned as it sounds, as we have to shell out endless amounts of money to watch the three good shows we care about on each service, I think we’ll all literally be poorer for it.
I am surprised we are not already there. Is OTA broadcasting mandated by the FCC / CRTC ? Otherwise I am not sure what the upside is for the broadcasters. Surely the rabbit-ear demographic is fairly small and probably skewed toward penny-pinchers anyway, making it not exactly a fat target for the advertisers. And the large number of Southern Ontario viewers watching ads for Western New York car dealers and ambulance chasers (and vice versa) are never going to patronize those businesses.
- RadioActive
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Re: Amazon to Launch Prime Video Channels for Canada
Is OTA broadcasting mandated by the FCC / CRTC ? Otherwise I am not sure what the upside is for the broadcasters.
If I'm not mistaken, this issue came up when a few of the big OTA owners wanted to shut down some of their increasingly expensive transmitters. The CRTC (and some complaining consumers) reactions were to nix the idea in many cases. The Rogers and Bells were told that if they removed their over-the-air signals, they would no longer be given any special channel placement preferences on cable/sat systems in this country and (I'm not sure about this next one) possibly lose some simsub privileges.
Needless to say, that stopped many of the plans in their tracks.
To say the CRTC is forcing them to stay OTA depends on how you interpret those actions. What they can't do is force a company to stay on the air if finances don't allow for it and if a CTV, say, wanted to devote all its efforts to CraveTV and some of its cable properties and give up its terrestrial licences, I'm not sure what the feds could do about it.
I think it's still a long way off, but for the first time, you may be able to see it happening from where we are now.