Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by Amazon MGM Studios or licensed to Amazon, as Amazon Originals, and also hosts content from other providers, content add-ons, live sporting events, and video rental and purchasing services. Prime Video is offered both as a standalone service and as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. Amazon Prime Video is the second-most-subscribed video on demand streaming media service after Netflix, with about 205 million paid memberships worldwide. In some places, the service requires a full Prime subscription to access. In the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany, it can be accessed without a full Prime subscription, while in Australia, Canada, France, India, Turkey, and Italy, it can be accessed only on a dedicated website. Additionally, Prime Video offers a content add-on service in the form of channels, called Amazon Channels, or Prime Video Channels, which allow users to subscribe to additional video subscription services from other content providers within Prime Video. Launched on September 7, 2006, as Amazon Unbox in the United States, the service grew with an expanding library and added the Prime Video membership upon the development of the Prime subscription. It was later renamed Amazon Instant Video on Demand. After acquiring the UK-based streaming and DVD-by-mail service LoveFilm in 2011, Prime Video was added to the Prime subscription in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria in 2014; continuing the plan of LoveFilm Instant, it is available on a monthly subscription of £/€8.99 per month. The service was available in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, until 2013. On April 18, 2016, Amazon split Prime Video from Amazon Prime in the US for $8.99 per month. On December 14, 2016, Prime Video launched worldwide (except for mainland China, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria) expanding its reach beyond the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, and Japan. Among the new territories, the service was included with Prime in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Turkey, and Spain; in all other countries, it was made available for $/€2.99 per month for the first six months and $/€5.99 per month thereafter. Alongside Amazon MGM Studios, Prime Video constitutes one half of Amazon's membership in the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which it joined on October 1, 2024.