Amazon Prime Streaming Service Offers Downloads

1 Sep, 2015 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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In a departure from Netflix, Amazon goes ‘old school’ allowing Prime subs to download select content

Amazon has quietly begun enabling Prime Instant Video subscribers the ability to select movies and TV shows to portable devices that can be viewed without an Internet connection.

Compatible devices include Kindle Fire tablets, Fire mobile phone, Android and Apple iOS.

Downloadable content runs the gamut from Amazon original TV shows, select network serials and catalog movies such as The Hunger Games and Star Trek Into Darkness, among others.

Amazon, which is attempting to maintain parity with SVOD juggernaut Netflix both in subscribers and original content (about $1.3 billion spent in 2014), said the download feature depends upon license agreements with content holders.

The e-commerce behemoth said it has thousands of title available for download, which are marked by a “download option” in a title’s video details. Users will be notified when a downloaded title is set to expire (up to 30 days after download) or when the maximum number of downloaded titles at one time is reached.

“We're constantly working to establish and enhance these agreements so we can offer a download option for as many Prime titles as possible,” Amazon wrote in post.

Indeed, with WiFi access readily available, downloading content has largely been forgotten in age of streaming and cloud-based content storage. Dish Network recently enabled Hopper subscribers using iPads the ability to download content via Dish Anywhere to play on compatible devices without an Internet connection.

 

 

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