Prime Video's hit biblical series "House of David" returns for season 2 this fall, but watching it will set you back an additional $9 a month on top of your existing Amazon Prime subscription.
That's because Jon Erwin, the show's creator and director of “I Can Only Imagine," is launching a new subscription streaming channel on Prime Video called the Wonder Project, set to debut this fall. It's priced at $8.99/month and will be the exclusive home of "House of David" season 2, a co-production between Wonder Project and Amazon MGM Studios.
To be clear, that $8.99 per month is an added fee on top of your monthly bill for an Amazon Prime membership. A kind of subscription-within-a-subscription, Russian nesting doll situation, if you will.
After premiering on Wonder Project, "House of David" season 2 will eventually become available to watch for regular Prime Video subscribers in the U.S. and globally at an undisclosed later date.
"House of David" racked up over 40 million viewers worldwide when it premiered in February. Amazon confirmed it renewed "House of David" for a second season in March, which will follow the aftermath of David's battle with Goliath and his rise to the throne.
What a Wonder Project subscription gets you
At launch, Wonder Project promises “over 1,000 hours of highly curated movies and TV series that reflect the company’s mission: to entertain the world with courageous stories, inspiring hope and restoring faith in things worth believing in," the company said in a press release.
Moving forward, Erwin plans to release other originals through the service as well. Subscribers will get early access to new original films and series produced by Wonder Project.
“We are blown away by the success of House of David and can’t wait for audiences to be swept away into the epic action and drama of season 2,” said Erwin in a press release. “Our audience is underserved and craves a destination they can trust with exceptional originals and curated movies and TV shows. With the new Wonder Project subscription on Prime Video, we will be delivering all of that and more."
It's clear that giving Wonder Project subscribers early access to one of Prime Video's biggest shows of the year is the service's biggest selling point.
Whether subscribers believe that's enough to justify the added cost is another story. Especially when they know that they can hold out for its eventual wider release on Prime Video.
As far as subscribers are concerned, keeping select shows behind an additional paywall is likely to be seen as frustrating at best and a cash grab at worst.
Granted, Prime Video already offers plenty of channels you can subscribe to for an additional fee. But this is the first time that a program originally offered through Prime Video has moved to another paid service between seasons — and something tells me the move is not going to go over well when streaming services everywhere are seeing price hikes.
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