The Grand Tour launches to rave reviews

The Grand Tour will stream its first episode today in the usa and will be available to Amazon Prime subscribers in the UK, Japan, Austria, and Germany on Friday.

There’s a slight catch here, though.

But obviously I’m in the minority there – Top Gear was, and still is, one of the most popular shows on television, and the rights for the The Grand Tour have been hotly contested for a while now. Through the app store, you can download the Amazon Prime Instant Video App. Come The Grand Tour’s release, you will be able to watch the show through the compatible device.

That seems to the plan at this point.

At CES earlier this year, Netflix announced the significant global expansion, which didn’t include China, a country into which Netflix has since tried and failed to gain entry. The stars open a package from Amazon to find a letter saying that “in December, we will be launching the show globally-in over 200 countries around the world”.

While Canadians have been able to sign up for Prime since 2013, access to the streaming service has been denied because of difficulties over rights. If not now, then in the near future certainly.

Their new globe-trotting show reportedly has a budget that would make Top Gear weep, with suggestions that it’s costing anything up to an eye-watering €185m over its entire run or over €5m per episode. The deal begins at midnight ET and goes until 11:59 PM ET the same day, and it should be noted that a promotion which sees Prime dropping to £59 in the United Kingdom is going on now.

The wait for Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond’s new motoring series The Grand Tour will soon be over as it debuts on Amazon Prime Video on Friday. It remains to be seen how receptive Prime subscribers will be to the new original series, though there are plenty of other benefits to being a member.

But Clarkson was effusive on Twitter, confirming it to incredulous fans in replies asking him to clarify, and one user asked: “Does that mean Prime streaming will be available in Canada?”

The deal, which you can snag from Amazon’s Prime page, officially kicks off on November 18 at 12 a.m. ET and wraps up at 11:59 p.m. ET. In April, Amazon began offering a monthly $8.99 Prime subscription so members could access its video streaming service.