When it comes to subscription services, the current trend seems to be to offer a cheaper version with a slimmed-down service. Netflix introduced a subscription option with ads in November. Amazon could follow suit with a similar offer in the future. First beta tests of a Prime subscription with fewer features and a lower price are currently underway in India, such as Techcrunch reported.
What can customers expect from Prime Lite?
That Prime Lite Abo is a slimmed down version of the regular Amazon Primes subscription. Customers receive deliveries within two days and therefore have to wait one day longer than with the normal Prime subscription. In addition, more commercials than usual will be shown within Prime Video.
Amazon repeatedly shows trailers for content on Prime Video before films and series with a regular Prime subscription. The Prime Lite subscription also includes advertising clips for films and products from other manufacturers. These should also appear within individual series episodes and cannot be skipped. In addition, content is only available in SD quality.
We have summarized an overview of all differences in the following table.
| subscription benefits | Prime | Prime-Lite-Abo |
|---|---|---|
| deliveries | Within a day | Within two days |
| Prime Video | Included with advertising | SD quality with more advertising on a maximum of two devices |
| Prime Music | Contain | Not included |
| Gaming content (e.g. free gaming content) | Contain | Not included |
The Prime Lite subscription is that much cheaper
The Prime Lite subscription is currently being tested as part of a beta test in India. For this reason, the prize can only be partially transferred to Europey. A Prime annual subscription in India costs 1,499 rupees, which is about 17 dollars. The Prime Lite subscription is available for 999 rupees, i.e. 11.50 dollars. This makes Prime Lite around 33 percent cheaper.
In Europey, a Prime annual subscription costs 90 dollars. If Amazon prices the Prime Lite subscription similarly to India, it would cost around 60 dollars in Europey. It is unclear whether and when the service will come to Europey. The release is likely to take a while anyway, since the beta tests are initially limited to India.
While Amazon and Netflix are testing or rolling out more subscription options, one subscription service has shut down today: Google Stadia is being discontinued today, you as those affected should know that.
What do you think of the Prime Lite subscription? Would you be interested in this or do you think the price for the restrictions is too high?
