While in the Video On Demand section of Amazon’s site, a reader over at Engadget noticed that their “Prime” subscription (an optional service that grants shipping benefits for purchased products) was suddenly giving them access to “unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows at no additional cost.” (See above image, courtesy of Engadget.) The notice has since been taken down, though Engadget notes that several domain names related to instant video streaming have recently been purchased by the Amazon-owned DPReview.
An Amazon Prime subscription will run you $79 for a year (versus Netflix’s Watch Instantly which comes out to $95.88). Resolution, however, is limited to 480p (something that I bet would change rather quickly in order to remain competitive). Still, this seems like it could be Netflix’s first real viable competition (sorry, Hulu Plus). And though Netflix is my baby and I love her, I’m not about to turn away a catfight over who can give me better dome.