SEATTLE _ Amazon.com is celebrating the streaming debut of its Oscar-winning film, "Manchester by the Sea," by giving a free year of Prime membership to the residents of the Massachusetts fishing town the movie is named after.
This week, the e-commerce giant will ship to every Manchester household a gift box with a code to enroll in Prime for free and three packs of popcorn from Amazon's own private label brand, Wickedly Prime.
The membership means that the 5,000 or so residents of the city will get access to Prime Video in time for their namesake movie's launch on May 5. Amazon is betting billions in producing and acquiring content for its video streaming service _ a strategy that this year yielded three Oscars for the tech firm's movie studio unit.
Video is a key perk in the company's bid to make Prime a must-have subscription. Once people are locked into the $99 a year membership, which also provides shipping privileges, they are more likely to shop on Amazon. In addition, Amazon launched its video streaming service globally late last year, a move that allows its brand to establish a beachhead in places where the company doesn't have a retail presence.
