From 2003 to June 2017 I was a Netflix customer, for an explanation of why I left Netflix read “Why after 14 years of being a subscriber, I canceled my Netflix account“.  Since I left Netflix I’ve lived mostly in Amazon Prime and VUDU (both of which I already had anyway) and I’ve found that I have more than enough to watch plus I get all the other benefits of Prime.  But this got me thinking, and I realized that Amazon could crush Netflix if it just put a little more effort into the product, I’ll list my ideas below.

UI

I use Roku for 99% of my TV watching, and the Amazon video app while not the worst, could use some work.  The whole app seems a bit scattershot and needs a revamp, it seems like things were added without thought and user interaction was never taken into account.  I could say the same for the website, having things clearly marked would be nice, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to Google how to find things on Amazon, just clean things up and it would make for a much better customer experience.

Just as an example, my mom has both Netflix and Amazon Prime and almost all of the shows she watches are on both services, but she keeps paying Netflix because the UI is better and she can find what she wants faster.  I’ve talked to her about this and she has stated that she would give up Netflix if Amazon’s UI was easier to use.

Don’t kill off Originals

Obviously if a show isn’t getting any views you should kill it off, but killing off shows that have a small but dedicated following can really hurt a company’s reputation.  Netflix has shown that killing off a show (think Sense8) can really anger the user base, so don’t fall into that trap, if you just want to stop throwing money at an unsuccessful show then let the writers end the show so fans have an ending and don’t feel betrayed.

Star Ratings

As I stated in my post about canceling Netflix the last straw for me was the removal of the star rating system, Amazon has the perfect counter to this, IMDB.  If Amazon had the IMDB rating’s with a “we predict your rating will be” star rating below them it would be perfect.

Something like this:

********** IMDB Rating

********** Predicted Rating

The IMDB stars should be yellow, and the Predicted Rating should be blue.

Live TV

If Amazon could get a full fledged Live TV service like SlingTV or Playstation Vue it would be basically a one stop shop for people’s viewing needs.  Even if customers had to pay an additional fee for live TV it would still be a huge addition to Amazon Video, the only real catch is local broadcasts without that it’s just not compelling enough for most users.

Disc To Digital

As a VUDU customer one thing I love about the service is the Disc to Digital service, if Amazon had that I’d stop uploading to Vudu and go with Amazon.  With the addition of Movies Anywhere to Amazon I now have 99% of my VUDU library on Amazon and that’s great, but if I had the ability to convert my DVD’s and Bluray’s into digital copies for a small fee on Amazon I’d see no reason to keep uploading to VUDU and it would be a huge draw for customers since VUDU is owned by Walmart and a lot of people have issues with them.

Conclusion

Amazon has all the makings of the next Netflix, they just need to put some work into the service and then market it better.  I know that Amazon Video has replaced Netflix for me completely, and I’m sure that more people would switch if the service was easier to use and the marketing was a little better.