Amazon takes on YouTube

TechCrunch reports that this week Amazon launched Amazon Video Direct. This service allows creators to upload their own videos to Amazon’s Prime Video and generate royalties based on the hours streamed. Creators must fill out tax information and link a bank account, plus create pages for their series and provide artwork for display. They can choose to include shows in Amazon Prime, streamed free with ads, rented, sold or any combination.

Amazon video is available in Japan, the UK, Austria, Germany and the US. Variety reports Amazon will pay creators 50% of retail, 55% of ad-supported free streaming and 15 cents per hour streamed in on Prime in the US, 6 cents per hours streamed elsewhere, capped at $75,000. The top 100 titles get paid a monthly bonus.

It seems like Amazon is looking to take on the big players in the user generated content services like YouTube.

Amazon Monthly

Endgadget reports that Amazon introduced a $10.99/month payment option for Prime and a separate $8.99/month plan for just Prime Video in the US. Amazon UK already offers Prime Video separately for £5.99/month but no monthly Prime option.

The Verge notes Amazon started offering Sprint customers a monthly Prime option last month.

New Amazon Kindle leaked

The Verge reports that an accidentally published page on Tmall gave an early look at Amazon’s Kindle Oasis as well. It has a large bezel on one side, a 300ppi screen weighs 131 grams, 3.4 to 8.5 mm thick. The translated page described a rechargeable battery case that attaches with magnets and comes in three colors, providing 20 months of standby time. No mention of it being waterproof.

Amazon adds the Tap and the Dot to the Echo family

The Echo has received more than 33,000 Amazon reviews at a nearly five-star rating since launching in late 2014 and was one of the best-selling items going for more than $100 over the holidays.

Amazon is now introducing two new members to the Echo family with slightly different uses in hopes of achieving a similar reaction: Amazon Tap ($130) is a portable version of the original Echo, and Echo Dot ($90) is a tiny, hockey-puck-sized version that includes a built-in line-out connector to hook into your choice of speaker.

Doctor Who Streaming On Amazon Prime In March

This month the world wept as Doctor Who left Netflix with no apparent replacement to stream the hit show. Amazon though twitted this week that they will be streaming series 1-8 of the show on their platform, Prime Video, beginning in March.

http://nerdist.com/doctor-who-streaming-on-amazon-prime-beginning-in-march/

Amazon Prime now offers 20 % off new game releases

Amazon is making it cheaper for Prime members to play the latest video games. As part of a new benefit of Amazon Prime, the company is offering those with a subscription a 20 percent discount on new game releases. The deal covers any physical game (i.e. no digital downloads) and is available from the time the game is available to preorder through two weeks after it launches.