Amazon is poised to challenge Netflix, icflix and YouTube on the global stage with a massive expansion of its on-demand video streaming service, according to various online media reports.
Amazon Prime Video service is currently available in Austria, Britain, Germany, Japan, Australia and the United States, with a promise of availability soon in India.
Amazon Prime will likely expand to some 200 countries and territories and if you are not a subscriber yet. This would put the Seattle-based online retail titan’s on-demand video service on a level playing field with YouTube and Netflix, which at the start of this year expanded to 190 countries to proclaim itself the first global television service.
When contacted by AFP, an Amazon spokeswoman would only confirm that a popular original show titled “The Grand Tour” and devoted to cars would launch in more than 200 countries in December. The worldwide, exclusive availability of “The Grand Tour” and its mention in a tweet fired off by Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos will likely fuel speculation that this a first step toward a full-fledged global Amazon Prime Video service that will directly challenge competitors in the field.
How the show would be made available was not specified, meaning Amazon could opt to let people buy episodes from its online shop in some places rather than make it available on-demand at the Prime streaming service.
If Amazon Prime Video expands globally, it will most likely upstage the competition in media streaming services in less than a year.
