Amazon just launched a massive global expansion of Prime Video
Prime Video's new countries include India, France, Canada, and basically every major market except for China (where Netflix also still doesn't operate).
Amazon's expansion mirrors Netflix's global launch in January.
This launch comes at a time of rapid growth for Prime Video. Amazon had previously said it was doubling its spending on video content in the second half of 2016, compared with last year.
One expensive item was "The Grand Tour," a new show by Jeremy Clarkson and the "Top Gear" crew, which cost Amazon a reported $250 million. The show appears to have been a success so far, getting Amazon's biggest premiere audience to date, and becoming the most illegally downloaded show in history (perhaps partially due to Amazon not being available globally). In a recent survey, an impressive 25% of survey respondents said "The Grand Tour" impacted their decision to sign up or renew their subscription to Prime.
But it's not just "The Grand Tour" that has generated buzz.
On Monday, Amazon secured a whopping 11 Golden Globe nominations, including two nominations for best comedy series ("Transparent" and "Mozart in the Jungle," which won the category last year). Amazon also has it's first movie-critic darling in "Manchester by the Sea," which earned five Golden Globe nominations.
There's a simple reason why Amazon continues to bulk up its Prime offerings: Prime members spend a lot more on Amazon. In fact, they spend about 4.6-times more money on Amazon than non-Prime members, Morgan Stanley said.
Prime costs $99/year or $10.99/month, and besides access to Amazon's videos, members also get access to free two-day shipping, a bunch of streaming video and music content, online storage space, game discounts, and much more.
Previous reporting by Eugene Kim.