It wasn’t too long ago that Ad Age reported that big-mouthed television executives let it slip that Amazon was preparing an online video content service, called Amazon Digital Video. A Net detective proves that keeping a secret online is like hiding a ham in your shorts.
or staging a peaceful protest in Miami without getting shot in the face.
According to this blogger, the service will be called “Amazon Unbox Video” and will offer Television show downloads for $1.99 and current movies for $10-$15. The content appears to be available for viewing on the computer via a product called Amazon Video Player, but also viewable on customers’ televisions or portable devices – except for the iPod.
Apple is working on its own movie distribution deal for iPod, news that was leaked by a Lions Gates executive. Just can’t keep those media executives quiet, now can they? Lions Gates has made some fun movies like The Punisher, Terminator 2, Natural Born Killers, Dogma.
20th Century Fox appears to be in on the deal with Amazon, according to the numerous screenshots, but its unknown if Amazon ever reached an agreement with ABC, who according to last month’s loose lips, wasn’t even close to an agreement.
A reader tipped off HackingNetflix to the secret service’s development. That blogger told another blogger, Alan Taylor, who put up several screenshots and told Nate Anderson at Ars Technica, who told me, who’s now telling you. Don’t you just love the grapevine effect of Internet rumors and discoveries?
Nate sheds some light on why, potentially, Amazon’s video offerings will not be available for the iPod:
One portable device that the store will not support is the iPod, which has probably inspired some murderous rants in the Amazon executive board room. Unfortunately for Amazon, putting video on the leading portable device is out of the question unless they use video without copy protection-and you can imagine just how the studios feel about that idea. This means that there’s still an incredible business opportunity out there for anyone (read: Apple) to make money by offering film downloads that play on the iPod.
Which is why it makes so much sense for Apple to do exactly this.
So, in conclusion, it appears Amazon really is working on a online video store, and if you want to keep something quiet, don’t tell a blogger, a journalist, or AOL.
