Amazon Launching Streaming Video Service: Will They Use Amazon Web Services?

Today, at The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference, Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos made reference to a new streaming video service Amazon will be launching in the next few weeks. While details were not discussed and very little info was given out, it's not surprising to see Amazon launch a streaming service based offering to go along side Amazon's Unbox service.

While I think it is great that companies like Amazon are experimenting with streaming media based offerings, there is no demand in the market for such a service today. I love Amazon and I love my TiVo, but to date, Amazon's Unbox service has had no real success in the market and consumers are not asking for more video based services to stream what is expected to be movies to their PC. The whole movies to the PC business has been tried for years, in all forms, and with every kind of business model. Lets face it. Consumers decide what gets adopted, not technology and content owners and my fear is that with the name Amazon has in the industry, expectations will be set way too high by many of what they think Amazon's streaming media based offering should turn into.

I hope Amazon launches it quietly and uses it as a test for how content is consumed, how the technology works and to basically get their feet wet with streaming. If the service is hyped and expectations run wild, it will hurt the entire industry when the service does not get as much adoption as some may think.

But for me, the bigger thing to watch from this service is how the content will be delivered? Is Amazon planning to stream the video from their network? To date, I don't know of Amazon having any kind of content delivery footprint using Flash Media Servers to be able to stream video. Could be they won't use Flash or that while Jeff called it "streaming" it might actually be progressive download. But the infrastructure side of this offering is really what we need to watch. As Amazon slowly turns into a CDN for video, it will be interesting if this new service now as acts the catalyst for Amazon to build out their network to support streaming or if they plan to use a third party CDN.

Comments

[toto]

There are companies streaming flash live and ondemand from amazon. So I don't think this is something new, or unheard of. But probably they will create a managed service or something like that, to make it even easier to stream.

[Dan Rayburn]

Actually, they are not streaming Flash from Amazon. I explain how it works here:
http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2007/08/amazon-isnt-in-.html

That's not to say Amazon could not add Flash streaming, but last time I asked Amazon, they had no support for Flash streaming delivery like a CDN.

[Steve Lerner]

Are we in 1998 yet? I am constantly amazed at the revival of so many dead business plans during a time where no fundamental factors of technology and economics have changed.

I suspect often that people are still confusing "stream" and "download" and that possibly this press release really means that they intend on offering a download service for media... but even that is an idea that doesn't yet gain traction.

Until we have a few fundamental shifts in technology use and economics, these types of models will not work for films.

[Chalkboy]

Actually you can, (and we are) stream from Amazon. AWS does not provide a streaming service but ec2 has a number of streaming server images you can use. Most streaming off Amazon is being done with open source platforms and streaming servers built by ISVs.

[toto]

Yes, there are many companies streaming from Amazon ec2, live and on demand. I think even Mogulus is broadcasting from ec2.

[Dan Rayburn]

I was very specific to say "Flash Streaming" as opposed to streaming. To date, I don't know of Amazon having any kind of content delivery footprint using "Flash Media Servers" to be able to stream video.

[toto]

I'm sorry, I believed streaming flash live and on demand with a flash media server (not necessary the Adobe server)will qualify as "Flash Streaming" but I see you don't think so. Care to enlight me what am I doing or what Mogulus is doing with the flash media server? Do I stream Silverlight to flash client with a flash server? Because now I'm really confused.

[Steve Lerner]

Yet again, the industry doesn't even agree on what "streaming" means- hence I disregard most of the press regarding media strategies and focus on the business model and net income...

[Gerald Zuckerwar]

"The whole movies to the PC business has been tried for years, in all forms, and with every kind of business model."

Dan, I'll have to disagree with you on this one. I haven't found one online movie rental service that doesn't require a box, a software download, or a movie download. I'd simply like to stream a movie to my PC on a pay-per-view basis. Actually I did do this once - it was The Secret and it streamed beautifully on the Vividas player.

[Yossi]

Streaming or Progressive Download

Dan, Unlike us, vocifuous though knowledgeable minority, most consumers would want to WATCH a movie. They would measure the service by
* How long to start watching
* Is the movie coming through smoothly
I believe these are the issues Amazon would have to address.
The end of this set-top boxes story is already known. The best set-top box(es) would probably be swallowed by the TVs above/underneath it.

[G]

Have to agree with Yossi. I DO want a true streaming service. I don't have any need to download and save videos. I won't watch them again and I don't have unlimited storage. I care about time to start and I want HD. Maybe I am in the minority right now but I strongly believe that the majority of consumers would rapidly adopt a streaming service if given a simple interface to instantly stream and watch video content on a high def TV. Right now everything seems to be full downloads and/or video built to be watched on a pc.