Netflix went down for an hour or so the other night. At least I'm guessing an hour - all it took was two minutes of Netflix being down to make me realize that as an Amazon Prime subscriber I have access to Amazon Instant Video which includes all of the shows I would want to watch on Netflix anyway. Two minutes to make me question why in the hell I'm subscribing to Netflix, and cancel that subscription. I wasn't even aware that Amazon Prime included video streaming, I just had it to get packages delivered quicker. My girlfriend and I wanted to watch a show, loaded Netflix, found a blank screen, and then she says "Oh wait, is it on Amazon?"
 
That's all it took. I wonder how many other people realized they had Amazon Prime during that little shutdown.

sharke
Netflix went down for an hour or so the other night. At least I'm guessing an hour - all it took was two minutes of Netflix being down to make me realize that as an Amazon Prime subscriber I have access to Amazon Instant Video which includes all of the shows I would want to watch on Netflix anyway. Two minutes to make me question why in the hell I'm subscribing to Netflix, and cancel that subscription. I wasn't even aware that Amazon Prime included video streaming, I just had it to get packages delivered quicker. My girlfriend and I wanted to watch a show, loaded Netflix, found a blank screen, and then she says "Oh wait, is it on Amazon?"
 
That's all it took. I wonder how many other people realized they had Amazon Prime during that little shutdown.

We have Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, but Netflix is still the one we use the most, at least for series. These days it's CSI Miami. Would cost us a lot of $ to watch all those series on Amazon or iTunes. 
 
Hulu is by far the worst of them - even though you pay for Hulu+, you still have to put up with adds, and their search engine is dreadful. I watched a few Star Trek Voyager on Hulu+ the other night; playback would interrupt in practically every episode and/or skip ahead to the next episode. That's not to mention that some of the stuff is available on the web only. 
 
If not for South Park, there's no way we'd pay for Hulu+.
 

Amazon instant video isn't pay per view though, you can watch all of your shows as part of having Amazon Prime, it's no added cost.

sharke
Amazon instant video isn't pay per view though, you can watch all of your shows as part of having Amazon Prime, it's no added cost.

I'll have to look into it - I always thought we had access to some selected content for free. Thanks for the heads up.

Rain

sharke
Amazon instant video isn't pay per view though, you can watch all of your shows as part of having Amazon Prime, it's no added cost.

I'll have to look into it - I always thought we had access to some selected content for free. Thanks for the heads up.

Amazon Prime = $99/year
Netflix = $120/year
 
Both give you free unlimited streaming of TV shows and movies, plus Amazon prime gives you free 2-day shipping. 
 
I've also just noticed that you get unlimited streaming of music. If I find that it has a selection similar to Spotify, I'll be cancelling my subscription of that too. Although on second thoughts, I don't think it includes a phone app so maybe not....

I think the only area netflix has an advantage ( for now) is original series.

Interesting. I gotta figure out whether Amazon does the streaming deal in Canuckerland. Doubt it though. Even their online shop is severely crippled up here. We have Netflix which I want to subscribe to but the monolithic cable providers (who essentially own our regulators that oversee them... the CRTC) have really gone out of their way to screw up the service so it's still not as good as in the US (but getting better).
 
Still $20 a month for a semi stunted Netflix service is likely a lot better than minimum $50 a month for basic cable which is essentially a massive pile of crap that I would NEVER pay for even if I had an endless cash supply.
 
Edit: The latest ploy recently was to force Netflix to comply with CanCon (Canadian Content) regulations. I can kind of understand the supposedly "altruistic" reasoning behind it BUT it really had nothing to do with that. They are just trying to throw yet another monkey wrench into the works for Netflix in Canada because everybody is sick of the cable providers bullshiz and alternatives like that mess with their stranglehold on content delivery.

I subscribed to Netflix for a couple of months back in Canada a few years ago. It was worth it - for a few months. 
 
We don't have cable - we have one of those Samsung intelligent (really stupid) TV and find what we want to watch via Amazon, Netflix or Hulu+. My wife also bought an Apple TV for Christmas, which I have yet to hook up to the TV - this should fill the gap and allow us to watch stuff from the iTunes store on the big screen, or to stream files from our computers.
 
Down here, Amazon is an integral part of our life and a huge time saver - everything from kitty food to electronics, guitar strings, DVDs and health supplements is delivered straight to our door.  Some of that stuff - like kitty food - is actually delivered automatically every few weeks. 

That's encouraging because supposedly NFlx has gotten a lot better in that time (more titles are being allowed through and the internet providers lost their case over extra bandwidth charges).
 
I'm thinking their movie section would be cool to have access to. I don't watch enough movies.

Here in Manhattan we have Amazon Now Prime, which promises a delivery time of a couple of hours. It's way too convenient.