Amazon turns on VOD
New service integrates Unbox
By Danny King -- Video Business, 9/4/2008
SEPT. 4 | Amazon.com this week made its video-on-demand streaming service live for all customers, less than two months after it started beta testing.
The retailer also has integrated its Unbox download service into its new Amazon Video On Demand.
Amazon started allowing all customers the chance to rent or purchase by streaming from an inventory of about 40,000 titles through Amazon VOD. The service allows customers to stream videos to a PC or Mac and watch them inside a browser, rather than requiring users to download a proprietary player, as with Unbox.
On its Amazon VOD home page, the retailer poses the question “Where’s Unbox?,” then explains “We've got a new look and a new name: Amazon Video On Demand. Now you can instantly watch TV shows and movies online as well as download to your Unbox player and TiVo.”
When a customer chooses a movie for rental or purchase, Amazon defaults to the streaming option, but a note at the bottom of the video feed prompts, “Prefer to watch offline? Downloading to your TiVo DVR or Windows PC is still available.” It then gives directions for downloading to the Unbox player.
Additionally, customers with Sony Bravia HDTV sets can buy a component allowing Amazon VOD programs to be streamed directly to the TV.
"The ability to watch content instantly without downloading first was among the most requested features of our customers, and now it's live," Roy Price, director of Amazon Video On Demand, said in a statement.
The streaming approach, at least in principle, gives customers access to their library from any Internet-connected device, without having to copy the file to multiple devices. It would, however, limit the ability to store files on a portable device for watching on an airplane, for instance, where there is no Internet connection.
The company didn't say whether high-definition titles could be streamed. None were available with the beta testing, which began in July.
The new service's launch was viewed by some as an admission from Amazon, less than two years after the launch of Unbox, that its requirement for customers to download a proprietary player might have hurt demand as it competed against services such as Apple TV, Netflix and Vudu. Amazon's media sales, including books, music and DVDs, accounted for 59% of its second-quarter revenue, down from 64% a year earlier.
Amazon launched Unbox in September 2006 and has never disclosed sales related to the service.
