Amazon confirmed Tuesday that it won’t charge Prime members anything extra to stream Ultra HD content that’s made available through its Prime Instant Video service, including originals such as Transparent and Alpha House.
“We want to be the best entertainment destination for customers,” Michael Paull, VP of Amazon Digital Video, said in a statement. “We’re confident that offering Ultra HD content, whether it’s a TV series or a film, will help create the ultimate viewing experience and can’t wait to start making it available this year.
“We’ve already announced that the Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek To Cheek LIVE! concert will be available in the premium resolution as well as Amazon Original Series including Transparent, Alpha House and the upcoming Mozart in the Jungle series, and we’re excited to unveil even more titles that Prime members and customers can watch in Ultra HD later this year and into next year. Amazon Prime members will have access to a great selection of Ultra HD content on Prime Instant Video at no additional cost.”
The announcement comes about a month after Samsung said that it would expand its Ultra HD ecosystem by offering 4K content from Amazon Video on a global basis. Amazon Studios committed earlier to shoot all 2014 full original series, including comedies and dramas, in 4K format.
Netflix introduced a limited library of 4K content on Samsung-made Ultra HD sets, including the second season of House of Cards, earlier this year. Netflix recently started to require customers to pay $11.99 per month, its current high-end tier, to have access to its 4K streaming library. However, current customers who were paying for 4K content through the older $7.99 per month plan have been grandfathered into that original rate.
