THIS WEEK, AMAZON Prime officially launched in Ireland, much to the delight of television addicts the length and breadth of the country.
For €2.99 a month, subscribers gain access to Amazon Prime’s catalogue of film and television, including their slate of original series.
But the selection is quite… sparse at the moment.
At present, just 16 television shows are available for streaming in Ireland.
They include Mr. Robot, Seinfeld, The Grand Tour, Fear The Walking Dead, Transparent, The Man In The High Castle, The Path, Mozart in the Jungle, Bosch, Startup, Flesh and Bone, Hand of God, Red Oaks, Preacher, The Collection and Chi’s Sweet Adventure.
And, er, that’s it.
High-profile shows like The Americans, Masters of Sex, Parks and Recreation, Downton Abbey, The Walking Dead, Outlander, The Last Man On Earth, Empire, Halt and Catch Fire and Good Girls Revolt are nowhere to be found, despite all being available for streaming in the UK.
The film selection is not much better.
We counted 37 dramas, 7 childrens’ films, 22 action movies and 40 comedies in total.
And most of them aren’t terribly current. For Instance, 2012′s The Five Year Engagement ranks among the more recent titles available for streaming there.
The poor selection hasn’t gone unnoticed with many Irish customers taking to Twitter to complain.
Whoops!
We couldn't find this Tweet
And some wondering if it would improve with time like Netflix did.
Remember when Netflix started? Oof.
So, what gives? Is this just growing pains or is Irish Amazon Prime just destined to be lacklustre?
An Amazon spokesperson explained to DailyEdge.ie that part of the dearth in content can be attributed to licensing rights and part of it can be attributed to the fact that it’s still early days for Amazon Prime as a global streaming platform.
TV shows and movies availability varies from country to country because of licensing rights. Today, our library features hundreds of globally popular Hollywood movies and TV episodes from top networks and movie studios, in addition to award-winning Amazon Original Series.
We are just getting started. We’ll continue to add a full line-up of fresh new original programming from some of the world’s greatest storytellers and entertainers to Prime Video globally in early 2017.
The spokesperson said that there are plenty of new series due to become available next year including…
…full first seasons of The Grand Tour, Woody Allen’s Crisis in Six Scenes, David E. Kelley’s Goliath featuring Billy Bob Thornton, docuseries American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story, Sneaky Pete produced by Bryan Cranston and Graham Yost, Z: The Beginning of Everything starring Christina Ricci, Patriot, The Tick, among other Hollywood movies and TV shows coming soon.
In the meantime, they pleaded for patience.
And we will continue to bring customers around the world compelling content and Original Series to instantly watch on Prime Video. This is just the beginning.
At least we can watch Seinfeld, right?
