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Amazon Prime Video is confusing its customers with bait-and-switch tactics, survey shows:
Maybe you know the feeling. You’re scrolling around on Amazon Prime Video, minding your own business, and you stumble upon the perfect Saturday night movie. But when you go to click on it, you realize—wait a tick—it’s only available to rent or buy.
In other words, Amazon is asking you, the person who already pays for a Prime Video membership, to pay even more money to watch a sappy romantic comedy (no judgment) that you never would have actively sought out.
Well, if you’ve ever experienced that bait-and-switch sensation, you have plenty of company. In fact, almost 30% of the most popular titles on Amazon Prime Video aren’t actually included in a Prime Video membership, according to a new report from analyst firm MoffettNathanson.
The firm, with help from third-party market researchers, looked at polling data from almost 19,000 streaming TV viewers to determine which shows and movies were the most popular on Amazon’s popular streaming platform. The top show, not surprisingly, was the Emmy-winning Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, with just over 10% of respondents citing it as their favorite. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan was No. 2, followed by The Boys. About 5% of respondents cited movies, The Office, or Friends as their favorite title on Amazon.
[...] “To clarify, most of the ‘not on service’ shows are available for purchase on Amazon, but are not included with a Prime Video membership,” the analysts wrote. “So, consumers are confusing the streaming service for the Amazon video store.”
[Editor's Comment. Removed duplicate line from last paragraph--JR]
(Score: 1) by slashnot on Thursday October 17 2019, @08:07PM
I've found when browsing the catalogue, that even the free "included with Prime" movies may only be free for a short period of time. I stumbled across the movie Airplane! and added it to my watchlist, because it was free with my Prime subscription. I wanted to show it to my teenage offspring, as an example of a movie that could never be made today - but that's a different subject. A couple weeks later I go to play it, only to find that it's three or four bucks to rent now, depending on SD or HD.