I'd hate to imagine how many people will be paying £79 or more just to watch a foul mouthed violent middle aged bloke with his two shadows.

At least they are paying for what they want, rather than the millions of sheeple paying the 149 bbc licence fee to watch E4.

Well, actually the license fee is to pay for the BBC for everyone, which is why it differs dramatically when compared to a subscription. But that is a long discussion...

Just be thankful you don't live in Germany then, which also has a license fee that costs more, but you get a hell of a lot less.

You get much fewer TV channels, which don't make any of the massive global hits that the BBC has (when was the last time you watched a German crime drama or even heard of one?)...

then the channels have ads, so you pay for the service, but unlike the BBC, you get ads...

And, the ads are so much longer than anything you have ever seen in the UK on FTA television! Sometimes they last up to 20minutes! ...

And you get a lot fewer radio stations than the BBC...

And non of the incredible music that the BBC helps bring to the world. Ever wondered why the UK is equal with the US in music influence around the world? If the BBC wasn't there or different, it would be a lot less. (How many bands from Germany do you listen to?)...

And it has nothing in comparison the the iPlayer. The ARD & ZDF Mediatech is so last century, it is really totally incomparable.

So, whilst the BBC may cost x amount per year, and while a lot of people complain about it and wonder why they should pay for it... it's not just for them, it pays for a television system for all people in the UK and when compared to any equivalent around the world, it really is amazing.

You can watch Outlander. That alone is worth the fee

In the last couple of weeks we've watched Paddington and The Imitation Game, which bypassed Sky Movies.

There's a fair amount of UHD/4k stuff as well (much more than Netflix).

Bosch and Transparent are also very good (Sadly none of the other originals really hold up but Man In The High Castle looks promising based on the pilot)

And I enjoy Halt and catch fire which I now don't have to illegal download as season 2 is airing soon after the U.S.

No it is actually cheaper - Looking at my account I am paying $49 which is around £31 per year.

This is with having a US .edu address also though

And if you you meet the Amazon Student requirements in the UK it's also £31 before tax. Yes there are some states that have no tax on digital goods but with more and more states imposing sales tax on digital goods/services or charging so called 'Netflix tax' it's harder to get away without needing to add the tax costs.

And fine if you reside in the US which I'm assuming you do for atleast part of the year to have a .edu address you can get the full benefit but for people in the UK you are losing a vast portion of prime benefits

I did the month trial recently because I wanted to finish watching the Shield which Netflix had allowed their deal to expire on, from what I saw the choices are similar to Netflix maybe with one or two slightly newer movies, they don't have the range of exclusive content that Netflix have yet, you know stuff like Orange is the New Black, Better Call Saul and DareDevil.

I was put off by the having to pay a year up front but I'm still quite tempted as I order a lot of stuff from Amazon so the free postage would be a worthwhile perk to me. I also like the fact that you can get new stuff by paying a extra rental fee, but you can do that without a active subscription can't you?

Yes you can rent without a subscription. You can also choose to pay monthly if you just want the films/TV and don't need the postage.

Amazon has its own original content though. Transparent is very good and I also enjoyed Bosch. I've watched a few episodes of Hand of God which isn't bad also.

And the pilot of Man In the High Castle was extremely good which is available in November. And their original content output is increasing massively.

They have also signed Deals for exclusive rights to a number of US shows such as Halt and Catch Fire, Extant, Outlander, Black sails, Constantine and I expect that will continue also

I had a month trial, I ordered one thing from Amazon in that month, I do not have a kindle, I have a Kobo, I don't stream music and I I doubt Amazon got the sort of thing i listen to anyway, i did have a look at their videos, but the UI is awful and makes finding stuff a pain, so I only watched two things on that.

So for me it is not worth it, but if you use all those services, or even a couple then it is worth it.,

I have noticed their exclusive content list growing recently, plus I would say the film choices are better than Netflix UK. To be honest it's only the fact that Netflix is so readily available on devices like TiVo boxes that stops me switching to Amazon Prime, I think in time when AP gets itself installed as a application on most commonly seen set-top boxes in the same way Netflix has it will officially take over as the number one UK streaming service.

Sadly we may have to wait longer.

Amazon are going through a stage of trying to sell their own set-top-box.

As soon as they started planning this box, they stopped adding apps to other devices.

It is possible once they reach a certain level, they will continue to add their apps to other boxes, but I have no idea when this may be.

Bosch is excellent and why I signed up in the first place, then I was impressed with The Man in the Iron Castle and was very pleased that was ordered to series, Sticky Pete is another I just discovered and enjoyed the pilot a lot so glad they picked it up after CBS dropped it and I too am also enjoying Man of God.

Have to say I thought Transparent was pretty much rubbish but each to their own!

Amazons Movie selection is perhaps better but Netflix have a much better library of TV so it seems like an intentional choice on both services part.

As for Prime on other set top boxes, I expect it will be on AppleTV if the rumour of an App Store on the new one is true. Roku isn't ever going to happen though, Lovefilm were crowing about how their app was nearing the end of testing and then Sky bought shares in Roku and the Lovefilm streaming app never made it to the public. It seems Sky's shareholding gives them veto power for new services launching in the UK, thankfully Netflix was already on there else I suspect like the NowTV boxes it wouldn't be on the Roku either.

Android based boxes are a bit of a pain to develop for which is why it took so long to get it on Android phones. In someways maybe Amazon should just scrap all their apps and rework them in the way that Netflix did so the apps on each platform are just wrappers with almost all the interface elements being served from Amazon not out of the app which would perhaps make Android devices easier for them to develop for (Using the way of the app handling everything is why Netflix for a long time only came out a device at a time where as no matter what the hardware or software an android decide is running they can now basically roll out on all of them)

That isn't true though, they have launched on other platforms since the box which included getting their android phone app launched which had been in development for a while. The problem is you have Apple where the platform is closed, Roku where Sky are blocking rival streaming services and Google devices where Amazon having not switched to wrappers rather than self contained apps is more difficult to develop

I have to say though while I enjoyed the whole idea of their 'pilot season' initially it's actually starting to annoy me now. It's fine in theory but the gap between the pilots and the show starting if it is picked up is infuriating. They need to be ready to go into production much quicker and get them up quicker if they are going to continue this, otherwise they should just go the Netfflix route and get the right people and give them free reign to make the best show possible.

I actually think if anything it would work better for Network TV than maybe it does for Amazon because obviously with them airing week by week they could have people choose what pilots they most like and be into production quicker as they don't need the whole season filmed

What other set-top-boxes did they launch recently on Wakey? i.e. boxes that directly compete with the Amazon Fire TV? (Those in the same price range). Android smart phones are a different market.

The theory that Amazon Prime are not on Roku because Sky has shares is only a theory. Neither Sky nor Amazon have stated this at all, and it would have been in Amazon's interest to bring this to light.

If it is the case, Sky must really have a huge amount of global power, as Amazon Prime also did not launch on the Nexus Player (Android TV) in the UK, US or Germany. Is this Sky at work as well?

What about Chromecast? Are Sky somehow affecting global apps for Chromecast in every country as well?

It's fine that you want to share your theory with us here, but it would be a little more accurate if you stated that what you say is simply a theory and not fact.

What we do know is this: Around the time that Amazon leaked that they were working on an in-house set-top-box, Amazon stopped releasing apps on any other competing devices. Amazon launched their set-top-box and as the service is not available on many other devices, their box has become one of the fastest selling STBs on the market.

Once this reaches a certain threshold, they will likely begin rolling out the apps onto other devices so they can increase market penetration, but until then they will use this "exclusivity" as a reason to sell their own STB.

Amazon is much bigger than Sky and much more powerful. If Amazon wanted to be on Roku in the UK, and if your theory was true that Sky was holding this back, Amazon would use its muscle to get on Roku. Sky don't own Roku outright and shareholders would not want a war with Amazon.

The reason Amazon isn't on Roku is most likely their choice.

Lovefilm had spent a good developing a Roku app for the service that became Prime Video. They even had select users testing it and we're talking about it being released to all in a matter of weeks. All went quite on it when after their last blog post on it Sky along with News Corp and Fox all bought shared in a round of funding (and rumoured the Murdoch family also did although as private investors they didn't have to announce it like the other 3 so we don't know for certain). This dissaperance of an app that had been in development for many months had nothing to do with them becoming Prime Video as it was a long time before that happened and even longer before the box was on the horizon. They also launched Lovefilm apps on a number of other platforms between this blog post and it becoming Amazon Prime. So something stopped an app that was almost ready launching.

And you need to remember that while Amazon may be bigger than Sky they aren't bigger than the Murdoch empire. They have an immense amount of power. Remember as well Netflix are actually a bigger company than Sky but that hasn't stopped Sky blocking them on Sky branded Roku boxes

Another thing you need to remember is Amazon devices take the same approach Google do with their devices. That being that they sell at cost. The hardware is simply there to help sell services to those who might not buy devices like streaming boxes or tablets but trust Amazon enough where they may ne persuaded and then take up Amazon services. Again it's what Google does to sell their services where they make money. But they don't really care what device you use, if the Hardware was the moneymaker they would be much stricter on what they allow on the box rather than making it simple to put an app on there and only blocking apps that have legal implications.

On Chromecast its a terms of service issue on android I believe (plus they only just got their Android apps in place and they are still a WIP). GoogleCast isn't quite as open as it seems especially when it comes to Android implementations. They could probably add it to IOS.

The only other 'box' platform that's launched recently is AndroidTV ones and Android devices aren't actually that easy to develop for due to the varying spec of all the devices. If Amazon reworked all their apps it would help, it's something Netflix did a while back where they switched to HTML5 wrappers which makes launching on devices with varying specs much easier but that will require them reworking their whole backend and every platforms app. I'm fairly sure though even without that we will see an AndroidTV app if there is enough sales of these devices as they do have a development team for Android apps.

However while they haven't had box apps on others recently they have launched on android phones and tablets (which people claimed they wouldn't because of the Fire tablets) and have launched on a variety of the new TV platforms that were completely new platforms that needed apps to be reworked

Absolutely none of that is proof Wakey. You are stuck on a conspiracy theory and can not prove it.

The timing argument falls flat because it was around the same time that Amazon's own STB plans were leaked.

And the argument about Android also falls flat because Amazon do have a history of trying to sell their own products first - Amazon Prime was held back on Android while they tried to push Kindle. Even when it finally launched on Android, they still held back major features such as offline downloads until now (previously only on their own device) and still with casting support (to AFTV) and X-Ray.

So the fact remains that as soon as the Amazon Fire TV began development, Amazon stopped adding the app to any (ANY) competing platform in every (EVERY) country.

This is also still just a theory, but a far more logical one than Sky conspiracies that really don't make sense.

One thing I've noticed with Prime is that they are crafty with TV shows, they will give you a couple of seasons as part of your subscription but then you have to pay for the later ones, Walking Dead being a prime example.

Between Amazon and Netflix you have a good selection of stuff though, I'm thinking of dumping unblock-us.com and subscribing to Amazon again and just going with that and UK Netflix, I know opening up the DNS settings gives you a lot more Netflix choice but it's a pain to keep switching the settings back and forth and it doesn't always work on my smart Blu-Rays and doesn't work at all on my TiVo.

Year, mixing a couple of SVOD's is a good way to add up the content choice.

It still works out as good value, especially as you take into account the offline options of Amazon and the other Prime deals.

As for the cheeky Amazon seasons, it is more noticeable at Amazon because they offer the extra seasons as PAYG, but Netflix don't offer or even show that other seasons may exist.

It will be interesting to see what Amazon do now that Apple has released details of the new ATV. Amazon's box is due for a major update any day now and I suspect they will add Alexa support (to combat Siri) and may open up global search a bit more since Apple will be offering it - all for a cheaper price.

Amazon and NetFlix show what ever they have licence to show. In the case of Walking Dead, Amazon may have the agreement to show the early seasons via steaming, but not the later seasons - which they are allowed to sell.

It's entirely possible for one service to have the rights to stream earlier seasons and another one have the rights to stream the later seasons (of a show).

I wonder if the time is coming for some consolidation. Silly that you might need to sign up to a couple of these online services as well as regular pay TV to get a good choice of up to date US programming.