Amazon Prepares Video Streaming Service

Amazon prepares to battle Netflix by providing its own TV and movie streaming service:

Amazon.com Inc. is trying to create a service that gives paying subscribers unlimited access over the Internet to some television shows and movies, as it tries to take on Netflix Inc. and grab a bigger slice of the online TV business.

The Seattle retailer has in recent weeks and months proposed a Web-based subscription service to several major media companies, including General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, Time Warner Inc. and Viacom Inc., among others, according to people with knowledge of the proposal.

Amazon’s new subscription service would be viewable on the Web, or through devices that play TV shows and movies Amazon already sells on an individual basis, according to some of the people briefed on the proposal. Those devices include some Internet-connected TVs and the Xbox 360 videogame console from Microsoft Corp. Amazon currently sells individual episodes of many TV shows often for $1.99 each.

In at least one version of the Seattle retailer’s proposal, subscriptions could be bundled with its existing Amazon Prime service—immediately giving the service a big cache of built-in subscribers. Prime is a service that offers members free two-day shipping on most Amazon purchases for $79 a year.

Amazon has said it would like to launch its new video service in time for the holiday season, one person with knowledge of the proposal said, but it is unclear if any media company intends to participate. It is possible the subscription service, which it has pitched in multiple variations over the last year but appears to focus now on older, “catalogue” content, could be delayed or shelved if not enough companies sign on, that person and others said.

An Amazon spokesman said he could not “speculate about the future.” A spokeswoman for NBC Universal declined to comment. Spokesmen for Viacom and Time Warner also declined to comment.

Posted in: Entertainment, Technology, Television