July 18, 2008

Amazon Launches VOD, Bring Content To Sony Bravia's

Amazon seems to be making some smart moves in the digital video market, moving beyond their Unbox service and unveiling Amazon Video On Demand yesterday. The new VOD service currently has over 40, 000 TV shows and movies available to be streamed directly to your HDTV, without any file downloads to your computer's hard drive a la iTunes.

The company has also struck a deal with Sony to directly integrate the new VOD service right into Bravia TV's via the Sony Bravia Internet Video Link. Of course, right now the requirement of the Internet Video Link adds a $300 expense to the partnership paid by the end user, but in future Bravia models the service should be embedded directly into the TV's.

Amazon says the partnership with Sony is only the beginning of many. The company ultimately would like to partner with every company that offers "connected" devices now that they offer support for both streaming and downloading. Pretty much all major studios offer content on the new service aside from ABC and parent company Disney who are in bed with Apple at the moment.

While this is a great new service from Amazon, the company doesn't expect it to make them much money. Developing the massive infrastructure to support the service plus big bucks paid to Hollywood to license content will make margins tight. The real hope in the end is that with the video-on-demand service integrated into everyone's TV, it'll pump up sales in Amazon's store with nothing more than the click of a remote.

Via New York Times