It was only a test. Had it been the real thing, it would have continued beyond the short, quiet period in which it existed.
That pretty much sums up the end of the $7.99 monthly Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) Prime Video subscription program, which the online retailer has apparently snuffed as quietly as it launched it a couple weeks ago when it was lauded as a challenge to Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) and Hulu.
"We regularly test new options for our customers. At this time we've completed our test and are no longer signing up new customers for Amazon Prime monthly memberships," a company spokesperson told AllThingsD.
The short-lived experiment would have given Amazon Prime Video customers the chance to pay $7.99 a month for two-day shipping, instant video streaming and access to free ebooks on loan from the Kindle Owners Lending Library. Now Amazon will return to its policy of only offering an annual subscription for $79 which is, in fact, cheaper than the $95.88 it would have cost to shell out a monthly fee.
While Amazon has confirmed it's capped the test, it hasn't announced--if it ever will--what it learned.
For more:
- AllThingsD has this story
Related articles:
Amazon debuts $7.99 per month Prime Subscription
Amazon seen as 'potential Netflix killer'