Amazon, in addition to being one of the largest online retailers, has been expanding its online services for entertainment. It all started with a vast e-books catalogue, which led them to start building hardware. Then, they released music and video services which now have some exclusive content with quite a success, so they built additional hardware to showcase the new content. In fact, they have recently released some very affordable tablets, as they rely on getting revenue from selling content rather than the sales of their hardware. They have also released some hardware to make older TV’s a little smarter and get their content and newer TV’s can also be benefitted from it as it brings some voice-controls, gaming capabilities and a better software experience overall.
Now, according to a report from Bloomberg, the company has been talking to companies like CBS Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal in order to have some of their channels available for a new TV service. This information comes from people closely related to the matter, though their identities were not revealed, and they also stated that the deal is still in a preliminary stage. This move would compete with pay-TV providers such as Comcast or AT&T and other companies that have been experimenting with some channels that are delivered over the internet like Sony, Dish or Apple. Amazon has also recently acquired Elemental Technologies, which could provide the live-TV platform. Still, nor Amazon neither CBS have commented on the subject and NBCUniversal took a while to reply.
This new service would run parallel to their existing on-demand video streaming service called Prime Instant Video, as they have signed up some new content including a new motoring show with former “Top Gear” host Jeremy Clarkson and the company will launch six TV shows premiering on the 2015 fall pilot season in countries like the US, the UK, Germany and Austria. The Wall Street Journal reported back in 2014 that Amazon was looking to offer live TV as they had approached to some media companies, so they have definitely been thinking about making such a move for a while.