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by danblick 3112 days ago
Yeah, you could argue, "Prime is sufficiently expensive and video streaming is a sufficiently large part of Prime that it's not dumping".

I can see that, it's possible. I mean, if Prime cost $1, it wouldn't be a good argument, but Prime is more expensive than that in reality. How much of the value of Prime is in streaming video (as opposed to free shipping)? It's hard to say (for an outsider at least, I'm sure someone at the company has run the numbers).

The gray area here does make the situation a little more confusing...

For the sake of argument, what if we suppose Prime costs $1/year and the value of free shipping is more than that. Would that be the kind of situation where the government would take antitrust action?

2 comments

The government won't take any antitrust action because its enforcement capabilities against corporations have been eviscerated. If the same people who prosecuted Microsoft were in charge today, there would be active lawsuits against ALL of the major tech companies. The book "Chickenshit" is a good one to read in this area.
In the UK, Prime Video is not as good as Netflix.

Amazon's got some great flagship stuff here, Mr Robot, Vikings, Sneaky Pete, The Tick, and the now finished Black Sails for example.

But it is almost as expensive as Netflix if that's your primary reason for hooking up with Prime.

It would only work as a much cheaper product or as part of a bundle.