Amazon Video On Demand launches
US-only movie streaming site finally unleashed to the public
Online-retail behemoth Amazon has launched its on-demand service in the US. Although Amazon VOD was released in its Beta stage two months ago, it has only become public-facing now.
Users of the service can now instantly watch films, straight from their computers, picking from a long list of films available.
In unison with the launch, Amazon has greenlit the service via new internet-linked Sony Bravia TVs.
Different to Unbox
Amazon's Unbox, which has been popular with TiVo users and offered a similar TV and video download service has been integrated into the service, but users of Unbox will still be able to access their downloaded content library via Amazon On Demand.
Speaking about his company's new venture, Roy Price, director of Amazon VOD said, "The ability to watch content instantly without downloading first was among the most requested features of our customers, and now it's live." This is something that Unbox did not deliver.
The good news for Apple users is that Amazon VOD is also available on Mac computers – another problem Unbox had is that it was Window-only.
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All you do is watch the film or TV show through the browser. And as the application is web-based, you will be able to watch your rented of bought films from any computer.
Price-wise, movies cost around $10 to $15 to buy and $3 to $4 to rent. TV shows must be purchased.
Currently there are around 40,000 titles ready to stream straight to your computer.
Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.