Amazon considers foray into online TV

New York (News Today) - Amazon.com has discussed starting a broadband subscription television service with programme owners, aiming to wade into the burgeoning online TV business occupied by Netflix and Hulu, people familiar with the matter said.

The talks are at an early stage and no timeframe or pricing has been finalised, these people said.

Amazon has approached Viacom, owner of MTV Networks; Time Warner, whose Warner Bros studios is among the largest programme producers in Hollywood; and NBC Universal, people familiar with the talks said.

The US television business has emerged as the next big battleground in digital media, where Apple and Netflix have aggressively courted pay TV and free-to-air programme owners for shows to rent or offered as on a subscription basis.

The web's largest retailer, which already sells films and TV shows on DVDs and operates one of the biggest online film and TV sales businesses outside of Apple, is hoping to blunt the impact of fast-rising Netflix, which has quickly built a popular subscription online video service off the back of its DVD rentals business.

Amazon is also seeking to outflank Apple, which had failed to convince TV owners to participate in a best-of-TV subscription service ahead of the launch of the iPad.

TV companies, which are paid fees by pay-TV services operators, were unwilling to jeopardise the lucrative but fragile economic model. Amazon, whose Kindle e-books reader is its best selling product, hopes that its existing agreements to sell movies and TV DVDs will give it the additional flexibility to negotiate rights to offer an online TV service, one person close to the talks said.

In one scenario Amazon would potentially pay more for DVD inventory in return for rights to distribute shows on a subscription basis. The news of the talks, which come ahead of a scheduled Apple conference on Wednesday when it is expected to unveil an update to its Apple TV device, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Google has also aggressively courted Hollywood studios to bulk up its pay-per-view online movies service. Viacom, Time Warner and NBC Universal declined to comment. Amazon was not immediately reachable.

Source : CNN

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