Amazon now setting its sights on TV - but it may be tough
The next big thing up for Amazon: television? The Jeff Bezos giant is reportedly considering a new online pay-TV service .
BEZOS: TV ambitions
It is said to have approached at least three big entertainment companies about licensing their television channels for the service.
This would mark a “significant expansion of the company's online video efforts,” says the Wall Street Journal.
The new service would offer live TV channels, such as those available now on cable or satellite TV.
Amazon now offers various TV shows and movies on demand for subscribers to its Prime free-shipping service.
But the big plan may not be easy. Getting TV channel rights has proved “challenging for the other companies trying to launch Web-TV services,” says the WSJ.
Media TV networks and studios don't want to harm incumbent pay-TV providers, "whose payments for carriage of channels are propelling the industry's growth.," says the Journal.
Companies seeking to launch new services have struggled to negotiate licensing terms that would allow them to price their services competitively.
Intel tried for two years to get a virtual cable service off the ground, - then this week sold its Internet TV-related technology to Verizon for an disclosed sum,
Verizon says the deal will let it offer an Internet-based version of pay TV in the future if it chooses to.
On the plus side, Amazon already has relationships with a range of TV networks and studios that it can use as a starting point for negotiations