Aussies can already watch The Grand Tour, but will we see Amazon's Fire TV streaming players after December's official Prime Video launch?
Amazon insists that its Prime service hasn't officially launched in Australia, but it won't give an explanation as to why we can suddenly sign up for the US or UK Prime service just in time to watch Clarkson, Hammond and May in The Grand Tour. It's easy to watch on a computer in a browser, but of course these days most people would rather watch television either on the big screen in their lounge room or the small screen in their pocket.
Once Prime officially launches in Australia next month you can expect the Amazon Video apps to come to the mobile app stores, as well as game consoles, smart TVs, Blu-ray players and some set-top boxes. You can get it running on some of these devices today if you know how to bluff your way into their US app stores.
What's more interesting is that Amazon also sells its own streaming media players in the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, they're on special right now as part of Amazon's Black Friday deals but they don't ship to Australia unless you want to use a forwarding service like Price USA or Big Apple Buddy.
The big question is whether that will change when Prime Video officially opens its doors in Australia – if it doesn't Amazon will struggle to get a foothold.
Due to their fierce rivalry, Amazon's video app isn't available for the Apple TV and it doesn't work with Google's Chromecast players – two of Australia's most popular streaming video devices. Meanwhile Amazon refuses to sell Chromecasts or Apple TV media players.
Roku is the other big name in streaming media players, at least in the US, but it's never officially come to Australia and instead we ended up with the Telstra TV which is a rebadged 2015-model Roku 2. Unfortunately Telstra locks you out of the Roku app store, so if you want to watch Amazon Video you're better off importing a Roku from the US – perhaps taking advantage of today's Black Friday deals and a mail forwarding service.
Without access to the Apple TV, Google Chromecast or Telstra TV, Amazon Prime Video is at a massive disadvantage in Australia's crowded streaming video market. Amazon has always been a very US-centric service so it might not be in a rush to invest the time and effort prepping for an Australian Fire TV launch.
Amazon's Fire TV players are aggressively priced to compete with Chromecasts, but they're not nearly as useful in Australia. Google's player has the significant advantage of supporting Stan, Presto, Quickflix and Australia's catch up video services. Amazon's app support is so US-centric that right now it has very little to offer Australians apart from Prime Video, Netflix and Plex.
A Fire TV might be handy if you're looking to bypass geo-blocking and bluff your way into US video services like HBO Now and Hulu – I haven't tried it myself with a Fire TV but, unlike Google's Chromecast or a US Roku, the Fire TV's DNS settings don't appear to be locked down so you should be able to get it working with a DNS-based geo-dodging service like Getflix.
It will be interesting to see whether Amazon truly embraces Australia or simply treats us as an afterthought. Are you excited about the arrival of Amazon Prime Video? How will you watch The Grand Tour each week?
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