Tech Report: Amazon's Rumored TV Streaming Box
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)—Bloomberg News is reporting that Amazon is working on a set top box that will let people stream shows to their TVs. But they'll be up against Apple and Roku, which already have popular devices. What are they going to have to do to get people interested in switching over?
While Amazon has not confirmed this, I heard that it's going to be conceptually similar to the Roku and to the Apple TV, but obviously if it's from Amazon, it would likely feature Amazon Instant Video, which currently runs on Roku and other devices and lets you watch movies through the Amazon Prime subscription where you get it through paying the annual Prime bill. Or you can pay $3.99 or so per movie.
You could think of it as a Kindle device that does all of that, but plugged into your television. My big question is will it run other apps? Will they open up their eco-system to other developers? Will you be able to run Netflix on it or HBO Go?
Amazon's Rumored TV Streaming Box
Either way, it's certainly another way to get internet content to the TV set. I think Amazon does okay with video. I don't think they're the market leader that they want to be, but they now have the opportunity to expand.
(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
