Amazon has introduced new options for its Prime service that should make it a more effective competitor to Netflix.
According to the New York Times, Prime is now offered in two new plans, the first of which is a video-only version giving access to movies and TV shows for $8.99 a month and the second providing the full benefits of the Prime service, including video and music streaming, for $10.99 a month.
The main change is that customers are no longer required to take out an annual up-front subscription of $99 for Amazon Prime and have the two new monthly options. However, in each case they will find themselves paying more on an annual basis: $32.88 for the full Prime service and $8.88 more for the video-only one, with the latter offering far fewer benefits.
By providing Prime as a monthly option, Amazon will be better able to compete with Netflix, whose service is currently available in the US for between $7.99 and $11.99 a month. Prime is currently estimated to have between 57 and 61 million subscribers.
