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Amazon Prime Video is confusing. When I had an Amazon Prime Video subscription, almost everything I wanted to watch had to be paid for separately, yet had Prim

Amazon Prime Video is confusing. When I had an Amazon Prime Video subscription, almost everything I wanted to watch had to be paid for separately, yet had Prime Video labels all over the place. It took me months before I realised that Prime Video wasn't actually getting me anything I wanted. I needed to pay outright for each season of what I wanted, and Prime Video didn't change anything about that, such as prices or what was available. When I figured that out, I dropped the subscription. I still watch things on Amazon Prime Video, without the subscription to Amazon Prime Video. Yes, confusing.

integricho 7y ago
So what is Prime Video for then, could you explain it for us that still don't get it?
- SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
  Some videos are free, but others you still have to pay for. (I suspect, but don't know for sure, that the "have to pay for" ones are just the ones where the studios charged dumb licensing fees and Amazon's trying to recoup costs.)
- pasttense01 7y ago
  Amazon Prime Video is the streaming component of Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime Video is thus somewhat comparable to Netflix--but with a poorer selection of movies and series. Amazon Prime has a number of other things, primarily free shipping. So if you have no interest in free shipping or the other things in Amazon Prime you can save a few dollars a year (but only a few dollars) by just getting Amazon Prime Video.
- heyheyhey 7y ago
  It's like the Amazon's Apple TV+. You get the shows that Amazon owns/licenses. Amazon still lets you stream content it doesn't own (like how iTunes Video lets you stream TV seasons), you just have to pay for them.
cortesoft 7y ago
It is not that confusing. Amazon sells and rents digital videos. Anyone can pay for those and watch them. They also have prime video, which is a subscription service that is included with an Amazon Prime subscription (although you can also pay for it separately if you don’t want the other prime benefits) With prime video, you can watch all of the Amazon originals (like the expanse season 4), and a subset of their entire collection that they license from other publishers. You can filter to just display shows and movies that are included in the prime subscription, so you don’t keep picking a movie or show and find out that it is not a part of prime.
- anoncake 7y ago
  Something must be confusing we else jklokier wouldn't have been confused.
indigodaddy 7y ago
Not sure what you are experiencing, but, anything with the prime label is indeed included with your Prime subscription, no extra fee.
- jlokier 7y ago
  i don't have a Prime subscription, as I found it wasn't useful to me. But for a while I did. What I found is that on "Amazon Prime Video", almost everything I wanted to watch needed to be paid for because it wasn't part of "Amazon Prime (Video)". It took me a long time to realise that "what you can get on Amazon Prime (Video)" and "what you can get on Amazon Prime Video" were completely unrelated things, and that I could access exactly the same things that I wanted, at the same prices, from "Amazon Prime Video" while stopping my subscription to "Amazon Prime (Video)". Amazon's documentation and labelling from the set-top-box app did not make this especially clear. The Expanse last seasons were a notable exception. I'd already seen the earlier seasons on Netflix a long time before, and it was very annoying to be unable to watch the second half of the story So I was delighted when I looked on Amazon, and watched them just before cancelling my Amazon Prime (Video) subscription. Now I just watch Amazon Prime Video. It is quite possible I've got the names of these things completely wrong. I don't really pay attention, because I very rarely use Amazon's consumer services, except via set top box. (I use AWS but that's completely different.)

integricho 7y ago

So what is Prime Video for then, could you explain it for us that still don't get it?

SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
Some videos are free, but others you still have to pay for. (I suspect, but don't know for sure, that the "have to pay for" ones are just the ones where the studios charged dumb licensing fees and Amazon's trying to recoup costs.)
pasttense01 7y ago
Amazon Prime Video is the streaming component of Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime Video is thus somewhat comparable to Netflix--but with a poorer selection of movies and series. Amazon Prime has a number of other things, primarily free shipping. So if you have no interest in free shipping or the other things in Amazon Prime you can save a few dollars a year (but only a few dollars) by just getting Amazon Prime Video.
heyheyhey 7y ago
It's like the Amazon's Apple TV+. You get the shows that Amazon owns/licenses. Amazon still lets you stream content it doesn't own (like how iTunes Video lets you stream TV seasons), you just have to pay for them.

cortesoft 7y ago

It is not that confusing. Amazon sells and rents digital videos. Anyone can pay for those and watch them. They also have prime video, which is a subscription service that is included with an Amazon Prime subscription (although you can also pay for it separately if you don’t want the other prime benefits) With prime video, you can watch all of the Amazon originals (like the expanse season 4), and a subset of their entire collection that they license from other publishers. You can filter to just display shows and movies that are included in the prime subscription, so you don’t keep picking a movie or show and find out that it is not a part of prime.

anoncake 7y ago
Something must be confusing we else jklokier wouldn't have been confused.

indigodaddy 7y ago

Not sure what you are experiencing, but, anything with the prime label is indeed included with your Prime subscription, no extra fee.

jlokier 7y ago
i don't have a Prime subscription, as I found it wasn't useful to me. But for a while I did. What I found is that on "Amazon Prime Video", almost everything I wanted to watch needed to be paid for because it wasn't part of "Amazon Prime (Video)". It took me a long time to realise that "what you can get on Amazon Prime (Video)" and "what you can get on Amazon Prime Video" were completely unrelated things, and that I could access exactly the same things that I wanted, at the same prices, from "Amazon Prime Video" while stopping my subscription to "Amazon Prime (Video)". Amazon's documentation and labelling from the set-top-box app did not make this especially clear. The Expanse last seasons were a notable exception. I'd already seen the earlier seasons on Netflix a long time before, and it was very annoying to be unable to watch the second half of the story So I was delighted when I looked on Amazon, and watched them just before cancelling my Amazon Prime (Video) subscription. Now I just watch Amazon Prime Video. It is quite possible I've got the names of these things completely wrong. I don't really pay attention, because I very rarely use Amazon's consumer services, except via set top box. (I use AWS but that's completely different.)