Amazon announces video download support, which will impact film and television retail

Amazon and Netflix have been competing fiercely in the copyright video (movie and TV series) market in the United States and around the world. Recently, Amazon announced a major move, announcing that it will support offline download and playback of video services in many countries. Industry insiders believe that Amazon's move will have an impact on traditional movie and TV series purchase and download businesses, including Apple.

According to the Associated Press, Amazon will support users of its video service to download movies and TV series to mobile phones and other devices so that they can watch them when there is no Internet connection. If you want to use offline playback, users must download the Android or iOS client of "Amazon Video".
It should be noted that offline playback is currently only supported on mobile phones or tablets, not on computers.


Amazon's video service is a paid service, but it is only available to Prime members who pay $99 a year for free shipping. It is not an independent service. Amazon hopes to expand the scale of its retail membership through movie, TV and video services.
In the field of copyrighted videos in the United States and even the world, Amazon ranks second only to Netflix. Recently, Amazon announced that it will launch a video service in Japan.
TV series that users can download immediately include "Downton Abbey," "The Good Wife," HBO's "Girls," and "Veep." Movies include "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire."
The first markets to support offline downloads include the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria.
Michael Paull, an Amazon executive in charge of video business, said that there is no doubt that the way consumers watch film and television entertainment content has changed, and it is important to provide viewing anytime and anywhere.
Amazon is the first of the three major copyright video websites in the United States to support offline downloading and playback, while its rivals Netflix and Hulu only provide online streaming. Regarding its rivals' move, Netflix said it has no plans to launch offline playback.
A Netflix spokesperson said that Internet speeds are getting faster and faster, and mobile Internet coverage is increasing in more and more places, so there is no need to launch downloading for offline playback for the time being.
Industry insiders said that Amazon's move will enhance its competitiveness in the field of copyrighted videos. In addition, the launch of offline downloads by video giants will have an impact on Apple and Amazon's film and television retail and rental businesses.
In addition to the old song downloads, companies such as Apple, Amazon, and Google are still operating the retail and rental business of movies, TV series, and videos. After purchasing, users can download them permanently to their local computer for viewing. Generally, the price of a movie video is more than ten dollars, and the price of an episode of a TV series is two or three dollars. If you choose to rent, the video will be automatically deleted after being downloaded to the local computer for a period of time.
In the digital music market, the streaming model with unlimited listening is replacing the song downloading model, and in the video market, the monthly subscription service with unlimited listening is replacing the movie and TV downloading business. Supporting offline playback will accelerate product replacement.
It is not yet clear whether Amazon's copyrighted videos have any restrictions on the time range for downloading and offline playback, or whether Amazon has made special arrangements to protect its own film and television series sales business.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.