amazon.com

Amazon to launch CDN

Pete Wylie — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:13:50 -0400

Amazon CTO Werner Vogels announced a serious entry by the online retail giant into the content delivery network space early Thursday morning. The service, currently in private beta testing, does not yet have a formal name. Vogels said it will use localized edge points on three continents to give app developers and businesses the lowest possible latency for content delivery to users and customers. He expects the service to be offered publicly before the end of 2008.

Vogels said customers can make one call to an API, then "store the data in an Amazon S3 bucket" that can be used to register the content with the CDN. The stored data will be tucked away under a new domain name that customers can use in links to provide the content to end-users.

Another intriguing part of the Amazon CDN model is no minimum requirements or registration fees; Vogels insists the service will be pay-as-you-use, rather than pay-before-you-play. Keep an eye out for findings from Amazon's private beta to see if Amazon Web Service's CDN model can compete with existing (and successful) ones offered by Akamai, Level 3 and Limelight.

There are more than 50 companies with CDN offerings currently, according to Streaming Media. It may be tough to wrest market share from entrenched offerings that have had significant lead time and development investment without a clearly superior offering. But if anyone has the established infrastructure and cash flow to fund a major expansion into this fast growing space, it certainly is Amazon.

For more:
- read Vogel's bold pronouncement of Amazon's beta CDN. Blog post.

TiVo Lines up YouTube, Amazon

Doug Mohney — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:19:11 -0400

Over a 24-hour period, DVR icon TiVO announced deals with YouTube and Amazon.com to expand its Internet programming reach and open up revenue opportunities.

TiVo will make YouTube videos accessible on the TV through the company's DVRs, creating the ability for users to access hundreds of millions of short-forum, user generated videos. TiVo users can now search, browse and watch YouTube videos through TiVo and will soon be able to directly log into YouTube accounts through their TV to access their videos, channels and playlists.

Interestingly, the YouTube software upgrade is applicable to TiVo's higher end (Series3 and HD) devices, so this is another little way to nudge owners to upgrade older hardware.

To add to the bottom line, TiVo will be promoting products such as books, CDs, and DVDs seen on TV shows and making them available for purchase through the TiVo interface at Amazon.com. Ultimately, promo sales plugs might show up alongside product placements during a TV show. Financial terms of the sale have not been disclosed, but Amazon affiliates typically get 15 percent of a sale.

Working against TiVo is a current audience size of only 4 million users. The company has been working with Comcast and Cox to put its software onto set top boxes.

For more:
- YouTube delivered by TiVO release
- TiVo, Amazon tackle TV/Web integration

Related articles:
SPOTLIGHT: Battle for the TV
Amazon Joins the Instant-on VOD Club

Amazon Joins the Instant-on VOD Club

Doug Mohney — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:18:57 -0400

Amazon.com has announced a new online store for TV shows and movies, joining Netflix in the battle of instant-on video gratification.

The new store will have 40,000 movies and TV programs available for immediate streaming; no waiting for downloads. It also appears Amazon has worked out some sort of bundle or tie-in deal with Sony, allowing Sony Brava HDTV owners to access the site through a $300 wireless broadband device; future TVs are expected to have the capability embedded and Amazon says it will work with other hardware manufactures for both streaming and bundling in the future.

One feature is an online "locker" allowing users to buy a TV show or movie without actually downloading a file to a PC hard drive, allowing customers to watch shows from any PC, regardless of location.

Current content seems to be just about anything except for HBO, Disney, and ABC; since Disney is pretty tight with Apple.

This is Amazon's second shot at the video-on-demand market; Amazon's Unibox wasn't successful because it only worked with Windows PCs and TiVos and also required a download of special software. The company is not expected to make a lot of money on its new service due to infrastructure and royalty costs, but Amazon Video on Demand provides a "footprint" into consumers' living rooms that leads to more Amazon.com traffic.

For more:
- New York Times Amazon video on demand scoop
- PC World gets a look at the Amazon VOD beta

Related articles:
Netflix Streams Past the Mailbox & PC
A Little Stream From Amazon