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Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 08:00 pm
Amazon offers purchases of Fox and ABC shows for 99 cents
Amazon challenged Apple by announcing 99-cent video purchases the same day Apple announced rentals.Bridget Carey of The Miami Herald noticed Wednesday that Amazon's new Video on Demand offerings were being marketed as "to own," as opposed to Apple's new rental model.
The Seattle, Wa.-based online retailer is offering shows from ABC, FOX, and BBC, including "Glee," "Bones," and "Lost." The Amazon Video on Demand streaming service is compatible with Mac or PC and various set-top boxes, but videos can only be downloaded to a Windows PC and "cannot be transferred to iPods."
The timing of Amazon's new releases coincides with Apple's September 1 media event, where the company updated its iPod touch, nano and shuffle lines and revealed a new cloud-centric Apple TV.
The new Apple TV streams media instead of storing it, switching from downloaded to rented content. During the event, Apple announced a partnership with Fox and ABC to offer 99-cent rentals of TV shows through iTunes. Rentals must be watched within a 30-day period and expire 48-hours after the first viewing.
Recent reports claimed Amazon was working on a subscription video service, but gave no indication of Amazon's plan to offer TV shows "to own" for the same price as Apple's rentals.
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Previous Comments View All
Big deal. If Amazon got that option, so would iTunes. That makes the @TV even more attractive (you would simply download it on your computer - which us what you would do with Amazon - and use AirPlay). We'll find out soon enough.
Just makes us all better off.
The larger point here is the complete lack of creativity and innovation by competitors: Why can't/don't a single one create a box, an interface and software - i.e., the whole package - that does it better than Apple? Hello!? It's pretty sad, really.......
I am surprised that Apple seemed to have such a "hard time" with this, and Amazon throws it out there like it was no effort at all... And how is Amazon able to do purchases for .99 and Apple can't? Is it because iTunes can be used on iDevices? Why is that such a problem for these studios/networks????
Oh dear. I can't imagine Steve Jobs will be too pleased to hear that Disney and News Corp gave Amazon a better offer on their tv-shows. 
\
I think Rupert Murdoch and Bob Iger can expect a telephone call from 1 Infinite Loop real soon! 
Amazon challenged Apple by announcing 99-cent video purchases the same day Apple announced rentals. ...
I don't understand how it's legal for the networks to do this. By deciding they are going to give Amazon this or Apple that, they are deciding the fate of those companies to a large extent (or trying to). This is like selling cars but charging fat people more than thin ones or giving a better deal to a certain race or ethnic group.
Basic fairness says that if they offer a product at a certain price to one company that all other things being equal, they should offer the same deal to another.
I don't understand how it's legal for the networks to do this. By deciding they are going to give Amazon this or Apple that, they are deciding the fate of those companies to a large extent (or trying to). This is like selling cars but charging fat people more than thin ones or giving a better deal to a certain race or ethnic group.
Basic fairness says that if they offer a product at a certain price to one company that all other things being equal, they should offer the same deal to another.
Unfortunately we do not know the terms of either deal. It may be that "all other things" are not equal. Who knows.
Windows only and no transfers to iOS devices? Doesn't matter how good the prices are at least I won't be getting it. I'm still happy with the rentals. I don't watch shows multiple times so it's a pretty good deal for me.
Big deal. If Amazon got that option, so would iTunes. That makes the @TV even more attractive (you would simply download it on your computer - which us what you would do with Amazon - and use AirPlay). We'll find out soon enough.
Just makes us all better off.
The larger point here is the complete lack of creativity and innovation by competitors: Why can't/don't a single one create a box, an interface and software - i.e., the whole package - that does it better than Apple? Hello!? It's pretty sad, really.......
I don't understand what you are trying to say. Right now it looks like iTunes = .99 cents for rental, and Amazon .99 cents to own. How does that make @TV a more attractive alternative.
I wonder if Amazon's contract was written in such a way that there is a loophole in which they can do this arbitrarily - i.e. Amazon takes the loss. Like what they did with the $9.99 pricing of ebooks.
I've never used the Amazon Video On Demand service, so is it really "to own"?
I don't understand how it's legal for the networks to do this. By deciding they are going to give Amazon this or Apple that, they are deciding the fate of those companies to a large extent (or trying to). This is like selling cars but charging fat people more than thin ones or giving a better deal to a certain race or ethnic group.
Basic fairness says that if they offer a product at a certain price to one company that all other things being equal, they should offer the same deal to another.
You guys are mistaken in how this works and this is actually an indicator of how frightened Amazon is. The networks don't set the price of purchased videos, they only set the price they sell them to Amazon at, Amazon can then sell them for any price they want. In this case they are willing to sell these as loss leaders (like they have done with books in the past) to try to win marketshare before Apple gains a good foot hold. I guarantee Amazon is losing money on every one of those videos they sell.
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What did the 5 fingers say to the face?
SLAP!
The studios/networks are Rick James.
Apple is Charlie Murphy.