Amazon Prime Video
- Amazon Prime: $14.99/month or $139/year (1-month free trial)
- Amazon Prime Student: $7.49/month or $69/year (6-month free trial)
- Amazon Prime Video-Only: $8.99/month
Coming in second place is Prime Video from Amazon. At this point, Amazon is pretty much a corporate empire. As of 2021, Amazon sits at third for the most valuable public company in the world, behind only Apple and Microsoft.
This is thanks to Amazon having its hands in many different industries, and dominating a fair portion of them. With involvement in industries like online retail, online grocery, cloud computing, and robotics, and with companies like Whole Foods, Audible, Zappos, PillPack, and more under their control, Amazon’s empire keeps getting bigger and bigger.
You might think that since Amazon is stretching themselves so much, their streaming service wouldn’t be as good as competitors who place more focus on streaming, but you’d be dead wrong. Amazon Prime Video is quite good. Here’s why.
Advantages of Prime Video
Prime Video Is Just One of Many Benefits that Come from Being an Amazon Prime Subscriber
While you can sign up for just a Prime Video subscription, it’s highly recommended to spend $4 extra a month and get the full Amazon Prime subscription. If you do, Prime Video comes as one of the many benefits that Amazon Prime members enjoy. And what benefits does Amazon Prime offer you? A lot. Here are just some of them:
- Free two-day shipping
- Free same-day or one-day shipping
- Free release-date delivery
- Free no-rush shipping
- Unlimited access to Prime Video
- Amazon Channels (pay an additional fee to watch TV networks)
- Unlimited access to Amazon Music Prime
- Unlimited access to Amazon Photos
- Prime Try Before You Buy
- Prime Reading
- Amazon First Reads
- Audible Channels for Prime
- Twitch Prime
- Exclusive savings on purchases
No streaming service provides more bang for your buck than Amazon Prime. This is especially true if you are a college student.
Prime Video Has Nearly Four Times as Much Content as Netflix
If you’re bored on a rainy weekend and looking for a new TV series or movie to watch, Prime Video certainly has a big enough selection to browse through. Currently, Prime Video has roughly 24,000 movies and over 2,100 TV shows in its catalog.
Prime Video is by far the best streaming service if you’re looking for obscure cult classics or straight-to-video B-list movies.
Amazon Prime has a great selection of TV shows as well. From classics like Boardwalk Empire, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Parks and Recreation, to Amazon Prime Originals like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Bosch, The Boys, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Prime Video is sure to have something for you.
Twitch Prime Is Great for Gamers
For better or worse, Twitch is the foremost streaming platform for video game content. Amazon owns Twitch, and being an Amazon Prime member gives you access to Twitch Prime.
Twitch Prime members can get free in-game items for a variety of games. Massively popular video games like Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Runescape have teamed up with Twitch and offer exclusive loot to Twitch Prime members. You can also gain access to free games, as well as exclusive emojis and a free channel subscription every month.
Amazon Prime Video Is the Best Value for College Students
We know college students aren’t exactly rolling in dough. For that reason, Amazon Prime should be every college student’s first option. Provided that you prove to Amazon that you are indeed a college student (by signing up with your .edu email account), you will get six months of Amazon Prime access for free! On top of that, once your 6-month free trial period is over, you will have the option of continuing your subscription for 50% off the normal price: a mere $69 a year.
If you are only interested in Prime Video and not the entire Amazon Prime package, then Netflix is probably your best option. But if you like Twitch, exclusive savings and deals, as well as free shipping options, then we highly recommend Amazon Prime.
Disadvantages of Amazon Prime Video
When It Comes to Content, It’s Quantity Over Quality
Amazon Prime Video is arguably the Steam of television and movie streaming services. Those of you who are familiar with the digital distribution platform Steam know that there are a ton of games available for purchase. However, any random Joe or Jane can put their video game on Steam, meaning there is a lot of junk to sift through before you can find something good.
Prime Video is very similar in that while it has a content count of over 26,000, you can bet your favorite fishing rod that there are going to be plenty of duds in the pile. In searching for a new show or movie to watch, you may get frustrated by how long it takes to find something that will hold your interest.
Rivals Netflix and Hulu don’t have as much content as Prime Video, but they also don’t have as many duds.
The User Interface Is Clunky and Requires You to Do More Work
Prime Video’s interface is nowhere near as good as the UI of Netflix and is somewhat cluttered. Unlike Netflix, the UI doesn’t offer personalized recommendations based on your search and watch history.
Their search function also needs improvement. Prime Video organizes its TV show seasons individually, which makes searching for a show confusing and frustrating as you have to search for each season. It also does not weed out TV shows and movies that you need to pay for. You might see something you like and get excited, only to be disappointed when you find out you will need to shell out some extra cash to watch.
Better for Watching Network TV Than Netflix, but Not as Good as Hulu
Prime Video lets users search by specific channels, which is a nice plus, but as a downside, you’re going to have to pay for network TV shows and movies. It offers up a ton of network content to view, and you can buy movies, episodes, or entire seasons of TV shows.
That being said, Prime Video’s network TV options are quite inferior to that of Hulu.
