The biggest bone of contention between Amazon Prime and Netflix has been the size of the content library. Amazon Prime has a smaller library of available titles, but tends to offers more of the latest movies and TV shows for instant watching. Netflix, on the other hand only offers TV shows and movies that are over a year old (with the exception of Netflix's own productions), but has a much larger library of shows and movies than Amazon.
Amazon has invested in building the Prime Video library as the biggest any streaming service has to offer. With over 17,000 movies on Amazon compared with less than 4,000 movies on Netflix, it is not likely that Netflix will ever be able to catch up with the sheer size of the Amazon movie library.
On Jan 28, 2019, Streaming Observer reported that despite a shrinking movie library, Netflix continues to have more movies that are "Certified Fresh" by review site Rotten Tomatoes compared with Amazon Prime and HBO Now.
The only major device that does not support Amazon Video but does support Netflix is Chromecast. Netflix supports Chromecast from all its iOS and Android apps but Amazon Video does not. Netflix also has a native app for Apple TV but Amazon does not. Amazon Video apps on iOS do support streaming to Apple TV. So if you have an Apple TV you can stream Netflix without any other devices. But to use Amazon Video on Apple TV you will need an iPhone, iPad or iPod.
Netflix apps are available on many platforms, including Apple TV, iPad, Blu-ray players, TiVo, iOS and Android smartphones, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Additionally, Netflix runs on platforms such as Roku, Windows phone and Google's Chromecast.
Amazon allows download of videos for offline viewing. Until December 2016, Netflix did not allow this. In December 2016, Netflix began allowing downloads of a limited number of videos for offline viewing. In the beginning, only Netflix original series were allowed to be downloaded. Netflix has said it is working on making a majority of the content available on its platform available for download.
Closed caption compatibility is available for a number of Amazon Instant Video devices, including the Amazon.com website for PCs and Macs, the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD, the iPad, the iPhone, the PlayStation PS3 and PS4, the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, Roku, Wii, Google TV, and for Samsung and LG 2012 or later models.
Netflix is available in many countries, including the US, Canada, Mexico, South America, the UK, Ireland, and Nordic countries (excluding Iceland). The available content varies depending on the region.
Even though both services have similar-sized potential audience, Netflix accounts for a much larger share of time spent. In a report released in June 2016, networking company Sandvine estimated that Netflix accounts for 35.15% of prime-time Internet usage in North America, and Amazon Video accounts for 4.26%. The popularity of Amazon Video has been growing and it now eclipses both iTunes (2.91%) and Hulu (2.68%). YouTube comes in at 17.53% in the analysis.
The $99 yearly fee is charged after the 30-day trial period. Not every movie and TV series that is available to stream is included in the "free" annual membership. In addition to the content that is "Prime-eligible", Amazon also rents and sells other digital content (movies, music, books, TV series).
Amazon Prime appears to offer more cost savings, if it is acceptable to pay up front for one year. Prime membership further offers the free shipping, free Kindle content and more possible deals given all Amazon online shopping options. Netflix as well as Prime present attractive catalogs. However, the Netflix catalog can change quite frequently, and without notice, for movies and television series might be available one day and get pulled the next.
Netflix's monthly fee offers flexibility to join, stop the service, and re-join if it is desired. Netflix at this time has a larger archive compared with Prime. Prime is expanding its content selection constantly, and over time may lessen this difference.
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