The fight for your streaming content dollar is heating up.

Big brands battle for your streaming dollar

You have Hulu Plus offering mostly TV content for $7.99 a month. Netflix has the same price point, but they’ve not been able to come to the table with big enough checks to keep the flow of movies coming. That’s lead movie lovers to gripe that there’s not a lot to see on Netflix.

Then you have Amazon that gives away its streaming service if you subscribe to Prime, their loyalty service for $79 a year that offers expedited shipping.

Amazon has been buying up programming and just spent a fortune to buy access to giant film library from a number of studios. This is a real growth area in the industry. It’s basically video on demand with enough content for somebody like me, but not enough for the movieaholics.

Yet for many, the price is so compelling. You pay $96 a year for Netflix and Hulu and $79 for Amazon Prime. Compare that with what you’d pay at a movie theater, easily $12-$20 for two people before you hit the concession stand. Then compare that to the $80 or $100 people pay for their monthly cable or satellite bill.

Think about that!

Meanwhile, Amazon is about to start collecting sales tax in California. People are racing to make purchases online to beat the sales tax!

This is happening state by state as Amazon negotiates deals where they agree to collect sales tax. The courts have decided that web merchants are not responsible for collecting taxes unless they have a domicile in the state where the purchaser lives. But you still owe the tax.

Why would Amazon modify what has worked so well for them and gave them a price advantage? Because they believe the next step is same day delivery. That means they have to stage merchandise in all the big cities in states around the country and charge you sales tax in order to have that ability to get things in your driveway the same day.

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