[wizwor]

Amazon is just passing on the increased cost of shipping and adding content to their libraries. Netflix has done this and Comcast does it a couple times a year. While I do not see the price increase ($1.67/month) as a key factor in deciding to use or lose Prime, it does remind people that they are paying for television.

We cut the cable nearly five years ago. With 40 broadcast stations in our market, there is a lot of programming to choose from. Cutting cable reduced my recurring entertainment bill from $170/month to $53/month. That $53 pays for an ISP and Netflix. The ISP's rate is guaranteed for life.

Since cutting the cable, we have saved ~$7k. That presumes that my rate would not have risen in seven years -- which is a silly presumption. We've spent about $2k of this on infrastructure -- a new router, two antennas, an amplified combiner, an amplified splitter, five set top DVRs, five blu-ray players (which streamed Netflix), six Rokus, and PlayOn/PlayLater with HD plugins.

I recently put four Simple DVRs in my basement which collect broadcast television on 2t usb disks. I can stream the collected programs or live tv from any one of these to as many as five devices which may include Rokus, tablets, or PCs. This works on my LAN or remotely. I streamed from my antenna to a Roku at my mother's house. That cost ~$600.

We mostly watch broadcast television. There are the national affiliates (CBS, ABCx2, NBC, Fox), the local independents, national syndicators (RTV, MeTV, ION, Cozi, Bounce), movie channels (This, Fox Movies, getTV), and PBS (Prime, Kids, Explore, World, Create).

When I have a hankering for nudity or curse words, we watch Netflix -- either live or time shifted with PlayLater. We watch some programming via PlayOn (Hulu, Food Network, CBS and Fox Classics) and some via Roku channels (Fox News, Amazon Instant, History, Lifetime, and A&E). All of these account for less than 10% of our viewing.

I have been tempted to switch from Netflix to Prime. We do a lot of shopping on Amazon and all have Fires, so there is some additional value. In the end, I prefer the Netflix catalog, plan my purchases, and content myself with my own ebook library.

We have looked at Hulu, but most of the content is available over the air or on Netflix, so that's not appealing.

The fact that Amazon has increased their free shipping threshold from $25 to $35 has had a greater impact on our relationship. I have postponed or passed on purchases due to shipping costs. Often, Wal-mart or Best Buy are competitive since I can pick up items on my way home from work.

The bottom line is that there is a cost and a value associated with every purchase. Each person has to determine when cost exceeds value. For me with Pay TV, that ship has sailed.