Netflix chairman Reid Hastings has repeatedly warned investors that his online video subscription service could face competition one day from a rival performing the identical function. And, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal , Internet giant Amazon.com Inc. is planning to do just that -- although it will limit its movie rentals to older movies and TV shows and distribute them exclusively online, not through the mail. Bloomberg News said today (Wednesday) that Amazon has had talks with Time Warner, Viacom, and NBC Universal about including their movies and TV shows in the service. Meanwhile, Apple is expected to announce its own similar streaming service when it unveils a new version of its Apple TV settop box at a news conference in Cupertino this morning. The Apple announcement will be accessible via the Internet, but, according to one report, a computer running either Apple's Mac OSX operating system or a mobile device running its iOS system will be required to view it.
01/09/2010
