Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Amazon: Prime subscribers 'love' digital media content

By | July 27, 2011, 2:00am PDT

Summary: Once again, Amazon delivered big numbers within its second quarter earnings report on Tuesday. But instead of the product focus being on rumored tablets, investors were curious about Prime’s digital video offerings.

Once again, Amazon delivered  big numbers within its second quarter earnings report on Tuesday. But instead of the product focus being on rumored tablets, investors were curious about Prime’s digital video offerings.

See also: Amazon delivers strong Q4, ups revenue outlook

Speaking during the company’s quarterly conference call for investors on Tuesday, Amazon’s CFO and senior vice president Tom Szultak responded briefly with the caveat that Amazon’s digital video venture is still in the early stages.

Even though he said there wasn’t much he could share, Szultak maintained an optimistic stance and Amazon’s commitment to keep focusing on Amazon Prime’s instant video service.

In terms of digital content, we certainly have an offering right now with the opportunity with Prime, we certainly have a product of Prime and video that we like. It’s extremely early but we’re learning customers love it and what they’re seeing so far. We like what we’re seeing so far in terms of some of the metrics but again it’s very very early. We do think that we’re fortunate that we can offer such a service to customers along with free shipping. We think that good customers are both physical and digital customers.

It’s disappointing, yet not surprising, that we couldn’t see some actual numbers. While it would be a little unfair to compare it to Netflix and its subscriber stats that were reported yesterday, it would still be helpful for some perspective on where digital video is headed.

Obviously, digital video is only getting bigger. But it’s harder to tell just how competitive this field is yet.

Related:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

Related Discussions on TechRepublic

Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?
6
Comments

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: Amazon: Prime subscribers 'love' digital media content
mrswilliamson 30th Sep
@wfd1 I never thought my mother (she is 75) would ever go down this electronic book route, but amazingly she has. She stated that it saves her travelling to a library. Booking agency Free MP3 Get a DJ DJ work MP3 Free Download DJ work
0 Votes
+ -
numbers?
bannedfromzdnetagainandagain 27th Jul
amazon doesn't give any numbers. what they give you is pr bs. no numbers (units, revenue, profits) for kindle, web services, digital content. just some management bozo speak. the tech press is so easily fooled.
If Amazon thinks digital books will replace the real thing, they had better hire new management teams. Putting out of business mom and pop stores, Waldens, Borders is the same kind of cr*p being put out by our prezidint and hiz buddiez.
@wfd1 I never thought my mother (she is 75) would ever go down this electronic book route, but amazingly she has. She stated that it saves her travelling to a library. Booking agency Free MP3 Get a DJ DJ work MP3 Free Download DJ work
0 Votes
+ -
Streaming
ParrotHead_FL 27th Jul
I don't see a big difference between Amazon's streaming library and Netflix's in terms of content. However, I can watch Netflix on my Wii--something I can't do with Amazon. So while I'm a Prime member, I don't stream from them.
@ParrotHead_FL

One big difference is Amazon's Video on Demand works on most Android devices via their web site whereas Netflix only works on a few Android devices.

I have both services and they both work well. Netflix currently does have a lot more "free" content than Prime though. As for rentals, yeah, they're about the same.

Both services play well over the internet too. I also use streaming from Dish Network and HBO Go regularly and they both could learn a thing or two from Amazon and Netflix when it comes to streaming video.

I'm a fan of Amazon and I wish them success. By the way, their players are starting to show up on Blu-ray players and other dedicated devices so they may show up on Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 eventually too.
As Amazon web services power Netflix, it's a bit ironic they are cometing.

They also own the European LoveFilm service, which if they bought and combined with the new to NA Spotify, would give NetFlix and iTunes a huge run for their money.

Their Could Storage/Music service is an expensive joke, and needs binned.

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix