Amazon offers purchases of Fox and ABC shows for 99 cents
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.
84 Comments
What did the 5 fingers say to the face?
SLAP!
The studios/networks are Rick James.
Apple is Charlie Murphy.
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.