Move Over Netflix, It's Prime Time For Amazon

I used to love Netflix.  Movies were decently current, the interface was easy to use, and I could watch wherever I wanted: mobile, t.v., or laptop.  That was then and this now.  Frankly Netflix has disappointed me.  The movies are old, save for the documentaries, or were never hits.  Cost: about $100/year.

Amazon Prime

As a frequent Amazon user, one day I decided to take advantage of Amazon Prime's 30 day trial offer with which they were trying to lure me.  Not only was I going to get 2 day shipping on my purchases included, but streaming movies and t.v., all for $79/year!  I decided to pull the trigger.

I am just over 30 days into my membership and it has been fantastic.  Granted, the interface for the Vizio television app I have took some getting used to.  Note to the developers: add a more intuitive browsing capability.  If you wanted to find a documentary, you search for that word to pull up a list of titles.  Like I said, a little odd at first.  You can always use their web interface which is much easier to sort.

In addition to the movies I have been watching, I have used the two-day shipping as well.  I bought a $6 pack of printer paper and two days later I was feeding my printer with it.  Awesome!  Let me know if you are thinking of making the switch to Amazon, or if you have gone back to Netflix and why.

Is it time to end your love affair with cable t.v.?

Pay-per-view, or free,web-based on-demand viewing may be cheaper for you than your monthly cable bill.

With “all you can eat” television viewing, it’s easy to ignore what cable (or satellite) actually costs you per show. According to research conducted by the Center For Screen Time Viewing, the average American spends “four hours and thirty-five minutes per day” watching television. With an average cable bill of $71/month, according to Multichannel News, that comes out to be approximately $2.37/day, or nearly $0.10/hour. If you multiply $0.10/hour times the average number of hours watched, that comes out to be more than $0.44/day in television viewing. Broken out even further, about $0.015/show.

Perform this exercise: the next time you have a session in front of the t.v., place the equivalent amount of coins (rounding as needed) down on your coffee table to illustrate what your viewing is actually costing you. Adds up quickly, doesn’t it? Now, if you actually had to feed your television like a parking meter, think you would you still watch it as often? Chances are there are many shows you would probably skip if you were charged on the spot to watch them.

While cutting your cable t.v. altogether still may seem impractical, you do have viable alternatives to simply "rabbit-ears" or antenna-based television reception.  While it might seem like it’s expensive at $1.99/show at iTunes, if you only really like to watch a couple of shows a season, and cannot be bothered by ad-based free television websites, such as Hulu, then it might be worth it to simply pay-per-view your favorite shows.  iTunes even has "season passes" which allow you to buy a season of one show to save you from being billed every week, and, at higher cost than individually purchasing a show.  Be careful about High Definition vs. lower grade viewing fidelity purchases.  You aren't going to notice much difference on a computer monitor, but iTunes will charge you more for HD purchases, so choose carefully.


If you can stand to wait a bit longer for some newer releases to come out, consider a subscription to Netflix. For about $10/month, you get access to thousands of television shows and movies, some even stream on-demand to your computer or specially equipped television.  It might be all you really need period.

Whichever you option you choose, keeping the status quo, or exploring alternatives, don’t look at your cable bill as simply another utility that must be paid.  Experiment and then crunch the numbers.

Alternatives to Cable Movie Channels and Netflix

If you are considering cutting back on your cable bill because of movie channels or other features you don't want, rest assured that there are lower cost alternatives that will allow you to still enjoy hit movies without paying for duds every month.  I try to avoid recurring charges, if possible.  Cable is a hold out in this department.


If you are ready to dump your movie channels or Netflix, consider using Redbox.  If you aren't familiar, it's a giant red box that you can find in grocery stores that dispenses movies for a $1 day (maybe higher in some places).  While it's almost a throwback in terms of going out and renting movies (like Blockbuster in its glory day), Redbox is really inexpensive and the movies are first rate.  Best of all, you can often find promotion codes that will give you free rentals.  Currently, the code BREAKROOM works, and I used it two weekends ago.  I rented "Angels and Demons" for nada.  Keep that code handy, but before you go, Google Redbox + promotion codes and see what you can find.  Write down any codes available and see what else might work as users have posted many codes.  And, if you sign up with Redbox, you will get a free coupon via email when you do.


After you view your movie, you can return it to any Redbox location, which is awesome.  So, it's almost like Blockbuster, but without the khaki pants.