Amazon claims streaming video lead over Apple, Hulu

Amazon claims that it has now passed both Apple and Hulu in US streaming video usage, citing a report by video delivery firm Qwilt.

Amazon said that video streams on its Prime Instant Video service nearly tripled year-on-year, pushing in front of the two major US-based rivals.

“We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in great TV shows and movies for Prime members and it’s working,” said Bill Carr, Amazon’s vice president of digital video and music.

Qwilt said that in the last year, Amazon moved from fifth to third place, passing both Hulu and Apple in terms of the volume of video streaming traffic consumed from their site to US broadband subscribers.

“Today, only Netflix and YouTube produce more total online video traffic in the US. Amazon’s traffic volumes, as measured by Qwilt in March of 2014, increased by 94% over the previous 12 months. In some US operator networks, between March 2013 and March 2014, Amazon”s streaming video traffic increase was nearly 300%,” said Qwilt in a blog post.

Amazon claims that Prime members can watch “tens of thousands” of movies and TV shows on an unlimited basis as part of their membership, while customers can also choose from more than 200,000 titles to purchase or rent on a non-subscription basis from Amazon Instant Video.

“Prime Instant Video is the only U.S. online subscription streaming service that enables offline viewing,” Amazon added.

The news comes a week after Amazon introduced its new Fire TV web streaming device in the US, in a bid to take on rivals like Roku, Apple TV and Google Chromecast.