Amazon Prime Video

Last year I discontinued Netflix for various reasons nothing to do with the service itself. When the covid-19 lockdown started, the thought of renewal crossed my mind. Though one day while ordering on Amazon prime, I realized about Prime video. This is how the Prime Video started for me.

TL;DR: Bundled with Amazon prime, It is a damn good video service. With Amazon prime becoming an absolute must now (and in future) due to the current covid-19 situation, Prime video would get viewers mind-share automatically. Personally after 5 months of “binging” it, I probably need one more video subscription soon!

What could be better - just some examples:

• User interface - it is good enough though not the best

• The “online marketplace” type search does not work for video. Lot of screen space is wasted as white space, relevant information is often missing and there are not enough results on one page. 

• You can see a title repeating itself across multiple categories, which is fair but the extent of repetition is not a great experience

• Netflix automatically pauses video, if there has been no user interaction for a long time period. This is a healthy practice, saves bandwidth and accidental views. However, here Prime seems to be aiming for higher watch times than overall welfare. 

• Video playing experience - basic, could be much better

• The “Amazon originals ads” concept is derived from similar practice among TV networks. It was probably worth copying but more intelligently. These are especially annoying during binge watching and advertise for series which one has already seen (which Prime knows)

• It was a common mistake of pausing the video, when the intent was fast forwarding. The skip credits / title song button does not always turn up. While you can start the video on a new device, from where you left off on another device, it does not always work smoothly

• Subtitles are unavailable altogether and sometimes available twice. In Russian series “Detetive Anna”, the original content had English subtitles already. If one enables them explicitly, then an overlay of two English subtitles is seen on screen (rendering them illegible). 

• Content - need more content, though not necessarily “Originals”

• Prime seems to lag behind competition in terms of content availability. They seem to miss the newest seasons of many series. But, maybe it is still value for money

• Though this industry is going for a big push for original content, and Prime originals are definitely getting better. But I don’t think Prime needs a big push here for customer stickiness. Personally, I would still be on Prime video, even if there were no originals. 

• There is definitely a push by Prime for content purchases. The “Free to me” button is not enabled by default. Also, it does not remain enabled, even if every time the first click was to enable it. Customer experience seems to have been traded off with potential revenue gains here.

• Personalization - Prime did launch their profiles just now, but “Personalization” is an area with a lot of headroom for innovation

• Recommendations are poorer as compared to Netflix or even youtube. This area is a big work-in-progress for the entire industry, but Prime just needs to catch up. 

• Email campaigns for recommendation were often delayed and were sent even if the said Title was already watched. 

• “Watched” Titles are still seen in their respective categories. They should definitely be available on scrolling, but should not be the first recommendation in their category anymore.

• The platform needs to have Digital well-being implemented like Apple and Android. Though this may be a required feature across this industry

What is intriguing (a much shorter list than above):

• Marketplace for other video subscriptions - No single studio would have the best content, there needs to be a marketplace for subscriptions. However, I do not see major studios like Disney or Netflix being part of this subscription - bad for consumers. Though you can buy/rent some of the content.

• Integration with IMDB is great, and on-screen information (called X-ray functionality) during video play is one of the most used features. The basic information about Actors and directors, saves a lot of Google search 

• Ability to browse without a subscription with a non-prime Amazon account. Netflix should learn from this. 

• Cross-sell of this service from an Amazon marketplace search is an idea which would be almost impossible for competitors to copy.

All-in-all: Prime Video is here to stay, partly thanks to the Amazon prime experience (and this is good for customers)