Goodbye, Unbox - Hello, Amazon Video On Demand

On September 3, Amazon announced that its Unbox video download service was being replaced with Amazon Video On Demand. A big difference between the two services is that Amazon Video on Demand now includes streaming ad-supported movies and TV shows (Unbox was purely a transactional business). Content can be viewed within a Web browser instead of just through the Unbox player (although downloaded content will still be viewed with this). The service has also expanded beyond PCs and TiVo to include Macs and Sony TVs equipped with the Sony BRAVIA Internet Video Link.

Amazon's moves highlight a couple of the key trends we reported in the Internet Video: Direct-to-Consumer Services (Second Edition) report:

• Internet video services that rely soley on transactional revenues should expand to include ad-supported content; and
• Getting content to the TV (through network-connected consumer electronics devices) will be a key factor in growing this business significantly.