Sony and Amazon try to rain on Apple's parade
All three expand video services with rental options and new content deals
Published: 1 September, 2010
READ MORE: Apple | Mobile Content | iPhone
Apple still has plenty of tame press and analysts to get excited about its launch event today, but its rivals are getting far more adept at stealing its thunder. Both Sony and Amazon managed to leak reports of their plans for movie and TV streaming services, on the day of Apple's latest push in that direction, while Google remains a perennial bugbear.
Amazon is believed to be talking to media companies such as Time Warner, CBS and Viacom about its plans. It would take on services such as the free, ad-supported Hulu, or the online rental model of Netflix. Amazon would likely opt for a web-based subscription approach bundled with its Prime offering.
Sony insiders said it would also unveil a similar service for its PlayStation this week, which would then go multiscreen with a common experience spanning the Vaio PCs and Bravia HDTVs, and in future, perhaps, the rumoured PSP handset and other Sony Ericsson models.
Meanwhile, Google is reportedly in talks with Hollywood's large movie studios to launch a worldwide pay-per-view streaming movie service in conjunction with YouTube. According to the UK Financial Times, Google's on-demand service would integrate directly with its search engine so that film and TV-related queries would push viewers to the new offering, which is likely to charge about $5 for new releases, which would appear at the same time as on DVD, BluRay and iTunes or Amazon.
Apple itself announced its annual revamp of the iPod media player line, and of Apple TV, plus a much anticipated social element for iTunes. Like Google, Apple has so far failed to tap fully into the social networking trend in content.
The revamped Apple TV features, as expected, rentals of TV episodes from ABC and Fox, available for 99 cents, and it has also Netflix streaming capabilities to add to existing iTunes and YouTube options. Episodes of TV series will be rented for 48 hours, optimized for devices including the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Programming will become available on iTunes within 24 hours of its original network broadcast. iTunes already offers feature films for rental and purchase, but not TV programming.
The service will expand the iTunes multiscreen strategy and provide additional content for key devices like the iPad, as well as integrating into Apple TV propositions. However, Apple has so far failed to sign up the other US national networks, CBS and NBC. Some TV executives are concerned whether an Apple deal will harm their existing revenue deals with cable providers like Comcast and Time Warner, as the networks receive about $250m a year in broadcast retransmission fees.
The new Apple TV itself will come out in late September and will cost $99, slashed from the current $230 price and is about a quarter of the size, with built-in Wi-Fi plus HDMI, optical digital audio output and Ethernet. Unlike the original version, there is no onboard storage, but all content is streamed from the internet or from other devices.
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