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How to get the new Clarkson, Hammond and May post-Top Gear show from Amazon

In a post-fracas world, it’s Amazon wot won the bidding war, signing up Clarkson, Hammond and May for the spiritual sibling to the BBC’s Top Gear

Though production will reportedely begin imminently, the trio’s new show isn’t due to hit our screens until some point in 2016. We don’t know how long each episode will last, whether it’ll be filmed in 4K Ultra HD or not (it probably will) or even what it’ll be called. 

What we do know right now is that you’ll be able to watch it on Amazon Prime; and there’s currently only one way of going about that. 

Get an Amazon Prime account

Related: How can I watch Amazon Prime on TV?Amazon Prime costs bucks; a £79 a year. While that’s a fairly hefty sum to stump up all at once, for your money you benefit from fast-tracked, next day delivery on most items ordered from Amazon’s online store. 

Other benefits of having Amazon Prime include access to Amazon Cloud Drive, which lets you store an unlimited amount of photos and more recently, access to Amazon Prime Music, a new Spotify-style streaming service

On top of all this, you get access to Amazon Prime Instant Video free for a year. This will let you stream shows and pilots including Extant, Black Sails, The Man In The High Castle, Constantine and a bunch of other stuff you can stream while you’re waiting for Jeremy and the gang arrive. 

Will an Amazon Prime Instant Video account work on its own?

If you’re not bothered about any of those other add-ons and you purely want to watch Jezza, the Hamster and Captain Slow, could you simply go straight for the jugular and get Prime Instant Video, which costs £5.99/month, on its own?

Right now, it’s unclear. Amazon hasn’t revealed anything beyond what’s on the teaser page other than: “The first show will go into production shortly and arrive exclusively on Amazon Prime in 2016.”

That seems pretty unequivocal – it says Amazon Prime, not Amazon Prime Instant Video. 

It’s possible that Amazon could be using the very attractive lure of the classic Top Gear line up to force people to buy a Prime subscription. 

At the same time, £79 up front might seem daunting to some whereas £5.99/month seems a lot more manageable – even though a quick beer mat calculation reveals that over a year, £5.99/month works out at £71.88 over 12 months. In other words only £7.12 less than an Amazon Prime subscription. 

Until Amazon releases more information, it looks like Clarkson, Hammond and May will only be available to Prime punters who can cough up eighty-odd quid a year. 

Do you need a TV Licence to watch Clarkson, Hammond and May’s new show on Amazon Prime?

Compared to what you’d have to pay for a TV Licence – currently £145.50 a year – a £79 Prime subscription perhaps doesn’t look that bad. 

After the sacking of Jeremy Clarkson by the the BBC, many online threatened to cancel their TV Licence. Which you’ll be able to do perfectly legally and continue to watch the new show on Amazon Prime. 

It’s possible, and we’re speculating here, that going with a video on-demand platform as opposed to a traditional TV broadcaster like Channel 4, ITV or Sky, was behind the team’s thinking. 

Whether that was part of the thinking or not remains to be seen. What’s certain is you can legally opt out of having to pay for a TV Licence provided you only watch catch-up and on-demand content. Of course, this also (legally) prevents you from watching any live TV services, whether it’s on a phone, tablet, laptop or any device. 

Depending on how BBC charter negotiations shape up, you may even be locked out of catching up with episodes of the new Chris Evans-helmed Top Gear on iPlayer. 

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