Internet TV is coming to Malaysia thick and fast. First, we had iflix, the internet TV provider based in Southeast Asia. Then earlier this year, industry giant Netflix announced a rollout to over 100 countries, including Malaysia. Now, Amazon has followed suit by making Amazon Prime Video available in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.
Amazon Prime Video has a catalogue of thousands of movies and TV shows that you can enjoy from popular series like the Sopranos as well as a whole host of original Amazon shows like Grand Tour and The Man in the High Castle, Transparent, Tumble Leaf and more.
Customers in Belgium, Canada, France, India, Italy and Spain with Amazon Prime memberships can watch Prime Videos with no additional cost while new Prime Video territories can subscribe for a fee of $2.99 (~RM13.40) for the first six months and $5.99 (~RM26) for subsequent months.
Like its internet TV counterparts, you can watch Amazon Prime Video using the app on Android or iOS as well as Amazon Fire tablets and gaming devices like the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox. You can also download the shows you want for later offline viewing.
Internet TV vs satellite TV
When you take into account the cost of internet TV compared to the standard satellite TV available here in Malaysia, internet TV comes out stronger. Here’s a quick comparison:
- Astro: ~RM190 for starter pack + news, variety, learning, sports
- Netflix: ~RM44 for standard pack (unlimited shows and movies, HD, screen on 2 devices simultaneously)
- iflix: RM8-10 per month (unlimited shows and movies, possible to connect up to 5 devices)
- Amazon Prime Video: ~RM76 per month including Prime Membership (Prime videos free to watch, pay to rent or buy certain shows and movies)
With that, even if you decide to subscribe to all three internet TV services available in Malaysia, it would cost you a little over RM100 a month – or less than RM100 for iflix and Netflix – which is significantly cheaper than a subscription to satellite TV. Of course, the only two things that internet TV cannot offer us is live sports and news.
It’s for that reason that satellite TV still has an edge over the consumers here. News we can get online, but we still rely heavily on Astro for sports – especially live games. Either way, this move by Amazon is great for us consumers because it gives us more options to consider. Check out primevideo.com to find out more about Amazon Prime Video.
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MJulie Yeo