Still rocking an Amazon Prime membership, either as a free trial or because you finally ponied up? Congratulations—you just gained access to over 5,000 movies and TV shoes via free livestreaming:
Movies and TV shows included with an Amazon Prime membership can be watched instantly on Macs, PCs and nearly 200 models of Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes that are compatible with Amazon Instant Video. The selection of videos available for instant streaming currently includes movies, such as “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy, “Amadeus,” “Syriana,” and “Chariots of Fire,” noted documentaries such as “Food Inc.,” “March of the Penguins” and “Ken Burns’ National Parks,” plus TV shows, such as “Doctor Who,” “Farscape,” “Fawlty Towers” and children’s shows, such as “Arthur,” “Caillou,” “Super Why!” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
Is it a hook to entice you into maintaining Prime? Yes. Is it, nonetheless, totally awesome? Yes.
[Edited to add: Eagle-eyed commenter Kee is correct; although it appears on the top-level screen to be open to all Prime members, only those who have paid for Prime are eligible. Sneaky, Amazon.]
TV Shoes? I love TV Shoes! 🙂 I think you must have shoes on the brain, again, Pretty Mir!
Gah! Amazon had me hooked on prime at the 2-day shipping. This just adds to my infatuation.
Thanks Mir!
Whoops! Yes, I always have shoes on the brain. Obviously. Heh.
Does anyone know how this works? How do you connect so you can stream the movies?
We have a Roku and it’s easy enough to enter your account information so you can then watch on your television. But you can watch On Demand on your computer, or similarly configure another device like AppleTV or whatever.
Amazon Mom and Student Prime are not eligible — only those who actually pay for the service.
Thanks Mir for the info. I have a free Prime Membership (student) and when I tried to connect through my PC, this is the message I received.
As an Amazon Student member you already receive:
FREE Two-Day Shipping with no minimum order size
One-Day Shipping for $3.99/item
E-mail alerts for exclusive deals and promotions from Amazon Student
Upgrade to a paid Amazon Prime membership for $79/year to also get:
Unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows
It appears to me that Amazon is only offering this for “paid” prime memberships.
Yep, I modified the post. Sorry about that, ladies!
FWIW, we occasionally buy Amazon On Demand stuff and the setup is the same, obviously.
i am in so. much. trouble. when october rolls around. via the amazon mom thing i’ve been able to bump out my free prime membership for the whole year that it allows. i don’t know what i’m going to do after october!
I’m tempted! My current free Prime subscription expires in 2 weeks, and I am so addicted to it that I’ve been considering paying the $79. What’s holding me back is knowing that there’s always another free trial around the corner if I wait. This could help justify the cost! Thanks, Mir!
Honestly, I don’t drive and have two small kids so I shop regularly with Amazon and couldn’t do without the Prime membership – though I will admit that I flinch a little when I pay the annual fee. I rely on the fast shipping a lot of the time, and this streaming movie service is a nice added bonus. 🙂
I never worry about paying for Prime. I’ve compared prices on all sorts of things at Costco vs. Amazon, and Amazon wins the price war when I figure in not having to pay sales tax and not having to drive halfway across town and schlep the stuff to the car. At Christmastime I am always sooooo very glad I have it. Also, it’s great for those, “It’s Aunt Virginia’s birthday on Friday? Whoops!” moments I seem to have rather often.
LOVE THIS! Accidentally paid for Prime when I forgot to cancel a free trial so this makes it even better…I must say I’m hooked on Prime though…I could order one small thing and have it in 2 days…..saves me A LOT of running around in the car…..Thanks again Mir…you rock!
I just checked it out and it’s also only available for the person who actually paid. So if you are on someone else’s paid membership (in my case my husband) you can’t get the video through your own account.
As an AmazonMOM member, I just want to say:
Bew! 🙁
Sneaky Amazon.
Darn! Why couldn’t they have done this when I had a paid membership rather than the free one I have now? 🙁