south african joe Subscription to Amazon's Prime Video streaming service will automatically transfer to the company New and cheap Amazon Prime Subscription, Amazon has confirmed.
Prime Video has until now been sold locally as a standalone service at R79/month. The newly launched Prime bundle, which offers the same video streaming with free delivery, cloud gaming and other features, is priced at R59/month, leaving video-only customers paying more for a lower price.
Robert Coen, Amazon's MD for sub-Saharan Africa, told TechCentral in an interview on Wednesday that those customers will be automatically transferred to Amazon Prime.
“We are auto-migrating those customers, so at the time of renewal they will be auto-migrated,” he said. Subscribers can sign up for Prime immediately and have any balance refunded to their account. Coen called the change a win for video customers, who said they were “getting so much value in this all-in-one package”.
Prime Video has been available in South Africa since 2016, when Amazon turned it on as part of a near-global roll-out. Despite a deep catalog and keen pricing, it has never achieved the scale of Netflix locally.
Coen dismissed any suggestion of poor performance by the service, saying it has a “very strong and loyal following” in South Africa and that its base is “growing very rapidly”, although Amazon does not disclose local customer numbers.
Time
The timing is interesting: the move is very similar to Canal+ showmax discontinued Following the acquisition of MultiChoice Group – a major commissionaire of South African content was removed from the market.
Asked whether Amazon would close that gap by introducing more local programming, Coen did not answer. he pointed towards siya kolisi documentary Rise As for existing local content but will not be drawn on the plans.
Reading: Amazon's long game in South Africa
The launch of Prime in South Africa has also drawn Amazon into another local competition: cloud gaming. Prime members get a standard tier of Amazon Luna, the company's cloud gaming service, at no extra cost, as well as a base-level Twitch subscription. — © 2026 NewsCentral Media