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Amazon Prime Video in Canada discussions.

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129K views 436 replies 91 participants last post by  Exid0r 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
#4 ·
Amazon set to stream new Jeremy Clarkson show in Canada - Business - CBC News
When asked for confirmation that a rollout of video streaming is imminent, a spokesman with Amazon was coy. "We are excited to announce that The Grand Tour will be able to be streamed from over 200 countries and territories around the world in December," Kaan Yalkin said.
When asked to elaborate as to whether that means a full Prime video launch is coming, Yalkin dodged the question.

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/11/amazon-prime-video-is-streaming-in-australia-right-now/

Australian residents have been able to sign up to the U.S. site for $US10.99 per month using an Australian address and credit card. However, here is Amazon's official response:
Amazon has finally weighed in on this, saying that Amazon Prime has not launched in Australia: "We have not launched Amazon Prime in Australia. The service some Australians have signed-up for is the US or UK Prime Membership, which provides free, fast shipping within the US or UK, as well as access to some Amazon Originals, such as The Grand Tour, where we have the global rights." Fact remains that you can still watch it right now, though.
 
#7 ·
@bev fan I got the impression that Amazon Prime Video in Canada works without any trickery, although the selection might be different.

As I was writing this, I started poking around Amazon.com and found this official comment:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J94A5GQ/
The Grand Tour is Going Global
For our global fans who cannot wait for The Grand Tour's official worldwide launch in December, you can subscribe to our US Prime Membership to start streaming weekly episodes of The Grand Tour today.
 
#10 ·
My guess is that anything that Amazon has Canadian rights to stream will work here in Canada. However, an interface only showing content eligible to be watched in Canada (including content not available in the US) won't appear until the official launch.

It may just be a coincidence, but it seems like one heck of a coincidence that Amazon Prime Video is expected to go live in Canada in December, and Shomi is going dark as of November 30...
 
#11 ·
Rumours about Amazon Video coming to Canada have been around for several months. I suspect the execs at shomi knew that Amazon was coming to Canada, since reports are that Amazon has been withholding international rights to the more recent programs that they are producing themselves and are also acquiring rights from the Hollywood studios.

The Rogers board came to the conclusion that shomi could never turn a profit while competing against Netflix, Amazon and CraveTV. I think the exact timing is a bit of a coincidence, but I believe the fact that Amazon Video was coming to Canada forced Rogers to evaluate their prospects for the service. Shaw had already written off their entire investment and probably were no longer interested in being a partner since they had sold all their media assets to Corus (which didn't want shomi.)
 
#17 ·
I think it was more the other way around. Amazon could not procure a sufficient library of streaming video in Canada with telcos hogging all the rights. So they allowed CDN companies to get rights to Amazon Prime shows and washed their hands of it. When Shomi faltered, Shawgers didn't want to simply gift all those rights to Belus - or Netflix for that matter - so they arranged to let those rights revert to Amazon.

It will be interesting to see if any content that did not start as an Amazon exclusive will see its rights transferred from Shomi.
 
#12 ·
#18 ·
^^ I heard about Prime Video coming to Canada before shomi shut down. Since I wrote that post, BNN has confirmed some additional info:
Amazon has been quietly acquiring Canadian rights to a range of programming over the past year...As for the Canadian rights to Amazon’s original shows, that’s a bit more complicated. Prior to the planned launch of Prime Video in Canada, the rights to some Amazon originals had been sold to other streaming services. The award-winning show Transparent, for example, has been available on Shomi, a service launched two years ago by Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications. Bosch, another Amazon original, has been available on Crave TV.
“Amazon has been holding on to the worldwide rights for some of its more recently produced shows,” one source familiar with Amazon’s plans told BNN. “One example is The Man in the High Castle. They’ve been shelving its release in countries outside the U.S. so they’ll have it available for the global release of Prime Video.
 
#20 ·
It's interesting to see the divergence between companies that have a view to the future (e.g. Amazon, Netflix), and companies that seem stuck in the past (which, apparently include Rogers and Shaw).

I would imagine that "going global" would be a lot more interesting to companies that exist in a "small pond" like Canada rather than companies based in the USA. I guess if the mindset "my company is a little company, and I want it to stay that way", then I can see how Canada-only options like Shomi not being profitable because of the small scale of the implementation leads to the conclusion that they should just exit the market.

Maybe they've just been conditioned to only want to operate in protected markets.

My two thoughts:

1. Being able to serve a global audience via the Internet is a huge opportunity. When you're still thinking about limiting yourself to a small region, it's hard to compete against companies that can leverage economies of scale. For example, there is a fixed cost in developing all the necessary software to deliver streaming video on the various platforms whether your market is massive or your market is 1 person. While many costs of being in this streaming market are variable, many others aren't.

2. Amazon is very much built on the idea that you lose money to grow market share. I doubt their streaming service is profitable yet, but that won't stop them from growing.

May the best companies win. Evidently, those companies won't be Canadian. I also recall ~5 years ago on this forum how some people were predicting that the likes of Netflix were going to get crushed by the BDUs.

How wrong they were. The BDUs tried to go toe to toe with the streaming video services and are getting slapped down. Going forward, I expect that as fewer and fewer people buy traditional TV traditional "cable TV" companies will eventually find themselves in a situation where the only services that they provide that have much value is Internet access (wired and wireless).
 
#25 · (Edited)
Yes, they can.

How to? (In the US)
Step 1: Download the free Amazon Instant Video app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Step 2: Sign in with your Amazon Prime subscription ID.
Step 3: Search for your favorite content or browse the limitless catalog and find the perfect movie for your mood.
Step 4: Start the movie and click on the AirPlay icon (displayed in the lower right) -> choose Apple TV.
 
#27 ·
sounds interesting about prime. may have a look at it. but I hate Windows and only have it on one computer for games only.

The reason i do not use CRAVE and did not use SHOMI was they did not work under Linux.
Netflix works thru Chrome on Linux (Mint) .. is Amazon prime HTML5 or still stuck in stone age using Flash and Silverlight?
 
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