Amazon Prime Video

Prime Video, also marketed as Amazon Prime Video, is an American Internet video on demand service that is developed, owned, and operated by Amazon. It offers television shows and films for rent or purchase and Prime Video, a selection of Amazon Studios original content and licensed acquisitions included in the Amazon's Prime subscription. In the UK, US, Germany, Sweden, and Austria, access to Prime Video is also available through a video-only membership, which does not require a full Prime subscription. In France and Italy, Rent or Buy and Prime Video are not available on the Amazon website and Prime Video content is only accessible through a dedicated website. In some countries Prime Video additionally offers Amazon Channels, which allows viewers to subscribe to other suppliers' content, including HBO in the United States.

Launched on September 7, 2006 as Amazon Unbox in the United States, the service grew with its expanding library, and added the Prime Video membership with the development of Prime. It was then renamed as Amazon Instant Video on Demand. After acquiring the local streaming and DVD-by-mail service LoveFilm in 2011, Prime Video was added to Prime in the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria in 2014, a move that angered some Prime UK members as the bundling was non-negotiable with a 61% increase in subscription fee.

In the UK, Germany, and Austria, Prime Video has been available on a monthly subscription of £5.99 or €7.99 per month, continuing the plan of LoveFilm Instant. The service was previously available in Norway, Denmark and Sweden in 2012, but was discontinued in 2013. On April 18, 2016, Amazon split Prime Video from Amazon Prime in the US for $8.99 per month. The service also hosts Amazon Original content alongside titles on Video as well.

On December 14, 2016, Prime Video launched worldwide (except for Mainland China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria) expanding its reach beyond US, UK, Germany, Austria, and Japan. Among the new territories, the service was included with Prime in Belgium, Canada, France, India, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Brazil, while for all other countries – for instance Bulgaria, it was made available for a monthly promotional price of $/€2.99 per month for the first six months and $/€5.99 per month thereafter.

Video quality
Depending on the device, Amazon supports up to 4K (UHD) and High Dynamic Range (HDR) streaming. UHD/HDR rolled out with its original content. Other titles support 1080p (HD) streaming with 5.1 Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus audio, with Dolby Atmos coming soon to certain titles. For titles available for purchase (and not included in a customer's Amazon Prime subscription), the HD option is often offered at an additional price.

Requirements
Prime Video is available worldwide (except for Mainland China, Iran, North Korea, and Syria). Initially it was available only to residents of the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and Austria.

The service supports online streaming via web player, as well as apps on Amazon Fire-branded devices, and supported third-party mobile devices, digital media players (particularly Roku), video game consoles, and smart TVs. An Android TV app is also available, except it was initially exclusive to Sony Bravia smart TVs running Android TV, and Nvidia Shield.

Amazon had historically withheld support for Apple TV and Google's Chromecast platform. In October 2015, the company banned the sale of these devices on its online marketplace because they do not support the Prime Video ecosystem. This led to critics arguing that Amazon was displaying protectionism against devices that could be deemed as undue competitors to its own Fire TV products. However, in December 2017, Amazon released an Apple TV app for Prime Video, and announced in April 2019 that it would add Chromecast support to the Prime Video mobile app and perform a wider release of Prime Video's Android TV app, This came as part of concessions to restore access to YouTube on Fire TV devices after a related feud with Google.