According to Bloomberg’s sources, Amazon has “reached out to major media companies including CBS Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal to express interest in carrying their channels”, although it cautions that any talks right now are still preliminary.
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The company last month said it would launch six TV show pilots for its video streaming service in the United States, the UK, Germany and Austria for the 2015 fall pilot season. Frost and Sullivan analyst Dan Rayburn wrote on Tuesday on his StreamingMediaBlog that content owners were approached by the company, without identifying any.
To make things more interesting Amazon recently acquired Elemental Technologies, Inc. in September for 0 million and Elemental’s primary business: online video solutions and distribution.
Hypothetically, a live TV service may put Amazon in a position to offer a live channel, unique to the online retailer, that only plays original content now being produced for Amazon Prime customers. “It’s possible Amazon is simply looking at the economics of the business, which would involve them talking with content owners about costs”.
It was reported back in August that Apple wanted to introduce a live TV service this year delivered via the Internet on their new Apple TV box with new remote but made a decision to delay the service until sometime in 2016. The company also funds its own movies and shows.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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While it’s unclear what a potential Amazon live TV streaming service would look like, or even at this stage whether it might go ahead, whatever they offer will be good, because ultimately all competition is good.
