Amazon Unbox on TiVo

Apple continues face pressure by third-party video download services, including a new service from Amazon and TiVo and Wal-Mart's multi-studio digital video store. TiVo, best known for its digital video recorders, has partnered with the leading online retailer Amazon.com to offer "Amazon Unbox on TiVo," a service that will provide TiVo subscribers with the ability to rent and purchase movies and television shows. Confirming reports from last September, the "soon-to-be-launched service" will include content from studios and networks including CBS, Fox Entertainment Group, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Apple earlier this year added more than 100 movies from Paramount Pictures, complementing its offerings from Disney, which reached 1.3 million in just three months. Currently offered in the US only, Apple is also planning to offer online videos to European customers sometime this spring, according to other reports.

Netflix earlier this year also announced plans for a streaming video rental service.

The Amazon Unbox video download service, which launched in September 2006 with some negative reviews, offers thousands of movies, television shows and other videos for download to PCs and any Windows Media Video-compatible portable device. In addition to PCs and portable devices, movies and television shows will be available to download directly to a customer's TiVo box for playback on their television set. The new TiVo-integrated service will require a broadband connection linked to a TiVo Series2 or Series3 box and an Amazon account.

"This is the first service that uniquely allows for downloadable broadband video to be integrated with programming recorded from TV so the consumer can easily navigate all viewing options," the companies said in a press statement.

Customers will be able to purchase television episodes for $1.99 and purchase most movies for between $9.99 and $14.99. Users will also be able to rent movies starting at $1.99. As an added bonus, all purchased videos are automatically stored in each customer's "Your Media Library" at Amazon.com for future access and download.

"The television is and will continue to be the preferred platform for watching video content, and TiVo is leading the charge in offering broadband-delivered content to the living room," said Tara Maitra, TiVo's vice president and general manager, programming. "By adding Amazon Unbox on TiVo, we are expanding the TiVoCast service to include movies, television shows and other premium content, giving TiVo subscribers access to the full range of video programming a consumer may want."

The company said that Amazon Unbox on TiVo is currently in beta testing among a select group of TiVo subscribers and will be available "soon" to as many 1.5 million broadband-ready TiVo boxes, the companies said without providing a specific launch date.

by MacNN Staff