The New York Times reports that Amazon is ditching its video download service, Unbox, in favor of a streaming video service called “Video on Demand.”
There will be 40,000 TV shows and movies from every studio and network except Disney and Disney-owned ABC, which are Apple iTunes allies. (No word on whether HD videos will be available.)
You’ll still have to pay to access the Amazon videos but, like Netflix’s video service, you’ll simply watch the movies or shows directly through your Web browser rather than downloading them to your hard drive.
The benefit of that system is that you’ll be able to purchase the video on one machine, and then watch it on any other PC with a Web browser.
Amazon is also going to work with television makers to embed the service directly in their HDTVs, so that you can stream the video directly to your television, rather than just watching it on a computer.
Sony’s Bravia TVs will be the first to take advantage of the feature, but others are expected to follow.
Amazon is sending out a limited number of invites to certain customers today to start testing out the new service, and it should become open to everyone later this summer.
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