If you like watching movies and TV shows on the go on your laptop or notebook, Amazon is looking to deliver on your wish as the company is hoping to compete against the likes of Hulu and Netflix with its own unlimited movie streaming plan. Amazon’s entry into the unlimited streaming market is still contingent upon the company securing rights and forming a deal with movie studios.
According to the LA Times, the company has been in talks “with the Hollywood studios and several independent companies about acquiring library content for a subscription movie streaming service similar to Netflix.”
Amazon’s unlimited streaming service was rumored to be launching this month, but the date may have been postponed due to technical reasons and because the company hasn’t been able to negotiate a deal with studios.
The company plans to initially offer older titles, making it less competitive in content selection as compared to veteran Netflix, which brings content 28 days after a DVD release. That said, many of Netflix users complain that the company’s streaming library content, while still growing, is more heavily weighted towards classics and older films rather than new releases. Amazon’s focus on older content may place itself at a disadvantage unless it is able to compete on price, besting Netflix’s $8 per month for the company’s streaming-only subscription.
That said, when Netflix launched its streaming catalog, the company was geared towards older content and slowly began adding newer titles to grow.
Additionally, for Amazon to grow, it will also have to target not only notebooks and PC users, but also the set-top box market as well as the mobile market. Netflix is currently available on a broad number of gadgets, including gaming consoles such as the Wii and Xbox, tablets such as the iPad, smartphones such as the iPhone, and boxes such as Apple TV and Roku. Netflix still is not available on the rapidly growing Android ecosystem, an area that Amazon may be able to penetrate given the company’s existing relationship with Google in pre-loading the Amazon MP3 store onto many Android devices on the market today.
Amazon currently already offers a streaming service via the company’s a la carte rentals and digital purchases, but Amazon doesn’t yet offer an unlimited streaming subscription plan.
Via: ZDNet