A Little Stream From Amazon

Jeff Bezos let slip that Amazon.com will launch a streaming video service in the next few weeks, but gave no details.

Speaking at a Walt Mossberg-hosted conference, Bezos spent more time talking about Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader than about its new offerings. Spokespeople at Amazon.com aren't saying anything.

Amazon has been beefing up its digital media offerings, building a digital download store for music, movies, TV shows, and videos. The company also has cut a deal with TiVo to allow users to rent videos from Amazon's Unbox service.

How streaming will fit in with the Unbox download service is an interesting question, since Unbox already allows for movie rentals and purchases. Bezos says it will be an a la carte, instant-on, no waiting for viewing service, but will this be enough to attract enough customers away from a downloadable format that takes longer, but is more convenient for viewing?

Last week, Netflix unveiled its set-top box for live streaming to the home TV set, so Amazon won't have a free ride in trying to secure market share.

For more:
- ZD blogs Amazon preps pay-per-view movie service

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