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Amazon Prime Video now offers something Netflix says it will 'never' allow

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos

(Mike Segar/REUTERS)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Amazon just announced a video-streaming perk that Netflix has sworn it will never allow.

If you're one of the 40 million to 60 million people who pay for Prime, Amazon's $99-a-year membership club, you can now download movies and TV shows on your smartphone or tablet for offline viewing.

This is really handy if you're flying somewhere and don't want to pay for Wi-Fi or you know you will be somewhere else where wireless is not available.

Amazon previously offered this feature only for people who owned one of the company's line of Fire tablets, but it now applies to Android and Apple devices too. Not all of the video on Amazon Prime Video is available for offline viewing, but a pretty hefty selection is (check out the list here).

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Late last year, a Netflix executive told TechRadar that offline viewing was "never going to happen" for Netflix's service. Netflix argues that being able to download videos for offline viewing is a short-term fix for the long-term problem of spotty Wi-Fi availability.

A Netflix representative has confirmed that the company doesn't plan to offer offline viewing:

"With internet speeds climbing and Wi-Fi available in more and more places, the ability to stream live wherever you are will make downloading less relevant over time. Our focus is on delivering a great streaming experience."

For Amazon, it's all about driving retail

This capability is Amazon's latest attempt to make its membership club more attractive. After Amazon spent more than $100 million on original video content last year, CEO Jeff Bezos put it bluntly when talking about Prime's award-winning show "Transparent": Amazon is the first company to use a Golden Globe to sell toilet paper.

In other words, Amazon loses a lot of money on the TV and music-streaming services, but it has built them up to make Prime more addictive. Users are more likely to fork over the big bucks if they already pay for Prime: Members may spend more than double on the site per year than nonmembers do, according to an analysis from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners in January.

Though Amazon Prime Video still doesn't offer as many options as Netflix, the company made sure to highlight the fact that some of the movies available for offline streaming — including "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" — are ones Netflix will be losing because it didn't renew its five-year deal with Epix, a cable network that previously allowed the service to offer a bunch of blockbuster films.

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