Clever Move
Amazon are on the ball, how many new Prime sign ups are they going to get?
I gave up on the show a long time ago so I won't be one.
Amazon Prime has signed up Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May for a car show intended to rival Top Gear on its streaming service. The show will be produced by their long-time executive producer Andy Wilman, said the company in a gloating press release. The trio have committed to three seasons as part of the TV …
In fairness I don't think they cared about either but caved to inevitable pressure on all occasions it was reasonably valid (and the slant one still bemuses me to this day). If we start getting worried about racist terms from other countries that we don't know we're going to have some major problems - well, we already have.
I think the issue is the constraints that they place on people regardless of all that; but how the fk should I know..
Depends on your point of view really, Sky TV is what £15 a month, or more if you want a decent selection. That's £180 a year.
Amazon Primeis £79 a year, so less than half.
Netflix is (I think) £6.99 a month, so slightly more expensive that Prime. IMO, Prime have got a better catalogue than Netflix too, though things change.
Of course, the major difference is, Sky will let you pay month by month whereas Amazon want the lot upfront, which (to me at least) does make it less attractive, but personally I wouldn't call it a lot of dosh in comparison to the competition.
I've a few other bugbears with Prime, but the overall cost isn't really one of them.
"Yeah but the full deal is only £8 more a year for everything else. I'm considering moving on to the full thing."
You'd *almost* think they intentionally priced the "video only" service for marginally less than the full one to make the latter appear better value and in the knowledge that almost everyone- like you- would view the upgrade as a "no brainer" choice. *Hmm......*
Also, Amazon probably got their money's worth out of this for the press attention alone. Pretty sure a lot more Radio 4 news listeners know about the service than they did before, even if they never gave a toss about Top Gear.
Deduct the TV license also!
If all you watch is netflix and prime (as I do) then you are not legally required to have a TV license. that is £145.50 a year saved not to be wasted on whatever nonsense the BBC is currently producing.
Send a letter to TV licensing withdrawing implied consent for them to visit your property and outlining reasonable (think IT contractor hourly rate) charges for dealing with any visits, letters or phone calls from them. You cannot stop them from writing to the address in general (ie addressed to the homeowner) but you can tell them to assume non response means you are still there and the stated conditions still apply, unless they have taken reasonable to steps to confirm you are no longer resident (such as checking the electoral role)
Obviously YMMV but I signed up just for free delivery. Prime Video was a nice bonus. And this week Prime Music streaming is an extra bonus.
Amazon Fire TV is a nice device and a decent UI given they're basically just trying to sell you stuff. (Shame there's no direct local media playback yet and Plex devs not wanting to dirty themselves with DVD rips.)
Well there's no point signing up to Amazon to get prompt delivery, they're either late, or don't show up (filing a "tried to deliver, no answer").
I suspect their vehicles are GPS tracked though (in an attempt to get the delivery drivers to actually do their job), as we've watched one of their clattery old vehicles drive past, just as the "tried to deliver, no answer" pinged up on the phone.
Delivery at 30mph would be tricky at the best of times.
I guess those speeds are only going to increase with the influence of Clarkson!
I must admit I've never seen an Amazon-branded vehicle of any kind; they have been known to use poor quality delivery companies on occasion although thankfully I've not had that problem. I have had issues with the odd Amazon marketplace seller, but then they're not Amazon.
It can be a bit disorientating to order something on Saturday afternoon and get it the next day.
If your using prime next day delivery amazon are good.
If your just ordering as normal (as in not next day but 3-5 days) they can be a bit crap since they use their own "Amazon Logistics services" for my area, and while they have improved they ain't great. Stuff like delivering to office addresses after 6pm, house addresses at random times during the day, not even bothering to deliver in some cases or delivering to a neighbour and not putting anything through the door to say "your neighbor has it". I think the "best" experience was pre-ordering a game 3 weeks before it was out, then amazon not delivering it on the Friday of release, but on the Saturday...at about 7pm :P Defeating the point of amazon really as I could have gone to the store Saturday morning and picked it up!
Its improved now but they are know around the office as "Amazon Shitgistics" for good reason. Might be good for prime, but standard delivery has got worse since they stopped using royal mail! They make Yodel look competent!
If your just ordering as normal (as in not next day but 3-5 days) they can be a bit crap since they use their own "Amazon Logistics services" for my area, and while they have improved they ain't great. Stuff like delivering to office addresses after 6pm, house addresses at random times during the day, not even bothering to deliver in some cases or delivering to a neighbour and not putting anything through the door to say "your neighbor has it".
Sadly my experiences have been similar. Still, the competition seems to exclusively use Yodel in my area so Amazon are the lesser of two evils.
I once had a delivery of some computer equipment which was shipped in fairly nondescript brown cardboard boxes. The Yodel driver left the packages in the cardboard recycling box in front of my house.
On collection day.
In the rain.
IME Prime stuff always costs more than normal stuff. So you're paying twice for the allegedly free next day service.
I'd use Prime Video more if it worked on Chrome on my Mac without stuttering, and without trying to force Flash updates in Safari every time I use it, even though I've tried to turn them off.
As for Clarkson - whatevs.
"Well there's no point signing up to Amazon to get prompt delivery, they're either late, or don't show up (filing a "tried to deliver, no answer")."
In New York I have had one delivery marked as a "prime" offer that arrived later (by one day) than the "expected delivery" date. I typically see my tat in two full days from the purchase time, even though that is NOT what is promised in the ToS.
I prefer my stuff delivered by the US Post Office, as they are on-time and don't break my stuff. UPS are prone to seasonal worker issues in my experience. Amazon even got the USPO to start delivering on Sundays again, something that was discontinued so long ago I don't remember it.
The times I see excruciating delivery delays that miss targets sometimes by over a month is when I get involved with a UK or Aussie vendor. I try and avoid doing so because the business standard seems to be "charge for express delivery and superb packing, toss in a padded Teflon mailer and sling it aboard the nearest tramp steamer pointing approximately the right way".
So perhaps your beef is not with Amazon so much as the vendors and the pitiful postal infrastructure in your locale?
There are other advantages with Amazon Prime that make the cost worthwhile for me, but to be honest until now I hadn't factored streaming TV as one of them. I live for Clarkson howling "I've ruined m'car!" while toodling across the Andes or somesuch.
@ Stevie - interesting ramble, thanks. I enjoyed most of it. Could have been more relevant (this being a UK website discussing a UK TV show which has been ousted from the BBC), but hey, I value your effort.
6/10
> this being a UK website discussing a UK TV show which has been ousted from the BBC
Have you heard of this phenomenon called the "world wide web". World wide being the important bit here...
Also - Top Gear is a UK TV show in origin, but was also one of the BBCs biggest exports, so again, not really just a UK show...
There's no comment on the article over whether the Amazon Top Gear would be UK only or not - I suspect not.
Could have been more relevant (this being a UK website discussing a UK TV show which has been ousted from the BBC), but hey, I value your effort.
So you aren't aware that the Clarkson/May/Hammond Top Gear goes out weekly on BBC America, or that there are umptytump seasons of it available for binge-watching on Netflix?
How Imperially insular of you. You should check out this American invention called The Internet. It is wonderful for keeping up to speed.
Well, I'll let you get back to The Archers on your wireless.
that there are umptytump seasons of it available for binge-watching on Netflix?
The last I looked, there were a grand total of 5 series of Top Gear available on Netflix - about 60 episodes. A rather small portion of the total, in other words. And they're not recent ones.
And many cable subscribers don't get BBC America. We used to, but our carrier dropped it when they raised the price.
"The last I looked, there were a grand total of 5 series of Top Gear available on Netflix - about 60 episodes. A rather small portion of the total, in other words. And they're not recent ones."
I see. Could you point me toward an exact definition of the formerly useful large number estimation phrase "umptytump" then? I would normally presume 60 as being well within that classification, but stand ready to appreciate some new ISO definition pinning the exact parameters down.
"And many cable subscribers don't get BBC America. We used to, but our carrier dropped it when they raised the price."
Are you telling me you can't wave more money at your cable TV supplier to put it back again? If you are indeed in America and this is the case you must have been the only person watching BBC America via your carrier. You need to get more cosmopolitan neighbours. Moving house would seem to be in order.
Live somewhere better, man. Live somewhere better.
Never had delivery issues once I got used to adding delivery instructions to leave near front door (depot for pick up is about an hour away...)
As well as their lockers they're moving into other collection points too: including a local Halfords, which was a bit of a surprise to some of the staff when I went to collect a parcel recently.
I think non-competes are now a bit of a legal minefield.
Case law over recent years has made employment contracts an awful lot less enforceable, in terms of notice periods and non-competes. Although the higher the pay and position, the less likely you can get out of it.
But Clarkson and Wilman at least were owners of the production company, and sold it to the Beeb only a few years ago, so there may have been terms in that sale contract. Or it might be in their BBC series contract. And it may just be that they're not allowed to work on car shows on other channels, rather than all shows.
They also have a new season of Bosch, which is superb, but I guess I your world, everything you don't know about, must be because its crap. In other words, you let someone else do the filtering.. I also guess you have Netflix, own and iPhone, Sonos and a GoPro. The true stamps of lazy shoppers everywhere...
On a point of principle, I refuse to purchase items from Amazon. If a product is only sold on Amazon, then that's tough for the product.
I am, however, a fan of Top Gear. But even if they had hardcore pornography on every show and gave me a front row ticket to the filming, it still wouldn't be enough to break my boycott of Amazon.
OTOH I for one happily buy from Amazon along with a range of other online sites. Yes they are a megamonopoly just itching to be born and yes they have DRM'd everything but they get my digital/shiny fixes to me far more smoothly than anyone else, so on balance I stick with them. Name any one else who deliveries on a Sunday without charging through the nose for it.
If they become as obnoxious with anyone else as they have been with Hachette - then I may reconsider. Whilst I wasn't enamoured of the last prime price hike, and the streaming video is a bit meh, Im actually liking the new streaming music, and looking forward to Amazon Gear.
Incoming clue missile for the BBC:
If you want to punish your very very very popular presenters for reprehensible bad behavior but don't want to lose your revenue stream and be made to look like a bunch of bathchair-bound dodderers who've lost the thread, instigate large fines and public outing as per sports louts.
"Okay, Clarkson, you punched this bloke because you were tired and being a twat: That'll be 30,000 quid and the loss of your co-producer credit for a year. The cashier is the third door on the right. Now cut along and don't do it again."
"Okay punched bloke, you absolutely didn't deserve that. You can either sue that idiot Clarkson or you can have a bonus of 3000 quid if you sign this here waiver."
Okay, Clarkson, you punched this bloke because you were tired and being a twat: That'll be 30,000 quid and the loss of your co-producer credit for a year.
The problem with that is that 30 grand is not really a punishment for someone like Jezza, who is really very wealthy. I guess that 30K to him is like 300 quid to me. I don't know about you, but if I could wander round my workplace battering people with impunity for 300 quid a time, I'd have to set up a direct debit.
So the BBC didn't really have a choice. Every workplace I know, whether you are a contractor or permie, if you twat someone you are out.
"Jeremy Clarkson said: “I feel like I've climbed out of a biplane and into a spaceship.”"
...said the self-proclaimed dinosaur. What could go wrong!?!
I won't be able to watch it where I am. Broadband speeds are too slow, making me wonder if that cash pass-back to government is a little premature....
But they have the original top gear producer with them as well and a nod from either him or Clarkson (who should be PM!) as to whom to poach and Amazon will happily poach them....
So, other than the phrases the beeb copyrighted and other such legal shit, it is perfectly plausible to reinvent the show in almost exactly the same format as it was before...
**Excellent.
**If true.
I've been a Prime member now for about 3-4 years and can't fault it at all. Deliveries are always on time and I can stream videos, stream music and read kindle books at no extra cost, I also share my Prime membership with my partner and mother.
I've always used Amazon a lot so it makes sense for me I guess, but I do recognise that it's not for everyone.
Presumably the BBC wanted to ensure no competition from Clarkson, May and Hammond (he's not a real hamster), hence the "no UK networks for 3 years" clause.
Given that this move basically negates that clause, are we going to see the BBC sue it's legal advisers. Because given streaming services are hardly new (which, as the operator of one of the oldest and widely used on the internet - iPlayer - the BBC should be aware of) then surely the clause could have been drafted to preclude appearing on UK screens - no matter where the contract is signed.
Bet the shows get made in the UK.
1. Suing a lawyer over something not written in a contract is very similar to suing a software company for not including something not in the business requirements/functional spec.
ie good luck with that.
ps Whilst it there would have been expensive external legal consultants it was probably reviewed by BBC's own legal dept anyway so the buck probably stops there :D
Once you get past the differences in language there are a lot of similarities between the legal and IT professions.
1. Untouchable mega-corps of "consultants" mostly there to do a "clippy" on a simple project - check.
2. Outsourcing of SME knowledge - check.
3. Specs wildly differing from Intent - check.
The BBC sells Top Gear all over the world, so I imagine the production budget is pretty large (even if it doesn't stretch to hot food). For the same reason, car manufacturers are probably very keen to lend them cars, even for stunts like football that result in several being wrecked, or for driving a Bentley at full speed over a rally course.
Amazon Prime may be the shape of the future, but I should think the audience it delivers is nothing like as large. The resulting show may be rather small potatoes.
I wouldn't imagine they've have signed up if Amazon weren't promising them a decent budget. After all, Wilman is the original producer, so knows exactly what he can do for what amounts of money.
For Amazon it's a big ticket item that might win them lots of susbscribers and viewers. And even at a few million an episode is still pretty cheap in terms of the the marketing money they'd have to spend for the amount of global headlines it'll get them.
And if the worst comes to the worst, they can just do what the BBC made loadsa money doing and sell the rights to various TV stations around the world.
One thing you can safely say about Amazon is that they're willing to invest/risk large chunks of money on something that they don't expect to make them money for several years.
The budget was only BBC2 sized. But that vehicle manufacturers (or the owners of cars), the British Armed Forces etc would be prepared to make things available probably made things a lot easier.
Consider the regular challenges. Filming costs aside many of them didn't spend much on the raw material the "buy a mid-engine sports car for £500" sort of thing.
not in the uk version, they call every car a box and have a good laugh at them
it goes from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCCT__BiK5Y
to london super cars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pc8aR-mDl0
the middleclass like to drive about in factory standard cars, thinking they are cool in the uk
"everyone on the bbc and radio hates modified cars"
Yeah, that's something that's not interested me for years but I saw a poster advertising a "Modified Car Show", so I'm wondering when "custom cars" became "modified" cars and why? After all, custom car runs off the tongue much easier than modified cars.
modified cars have engine tweaks, and a body kit, custom cars is making new panels and turning it into a hot rod or something along the lines of a hot rod
modified cars came along when touring and nascar came along, and a certain percentage of the car has to be from the road legal version, so if you have a skoda VRS, then the engine would probably make up all the regulation percentage, which allows it todo 230 mph with a super charger and not other modifications
Best of luck to the crew. Sorry to see Clarkson lose his cool and job but he may have issues to work out? Hammond's weird science U.S. show does nothing for me. I couldn't even watch an entire episode. The U.S. clone version of Top Gear sucks most of the time because of the stupid games etc. they play.