Amazon to launch streaming video

Amazon.com will launch a streaming video service in the next few weeks to augment its digital offerings, the company's chief executive said on Wednesday.

Jeff Bezos, speaking at The Wall Street Journal's three-day D: All Things Digital conference taking place north of San Diego, did not elaborate, and a company spokeswoman would not provide more information.

The Seattle-based company has been beefing up its digital media offerings in order to better compete with rivals such as Apple, which dominates the category with the popular iTunes music download service.

Besides recently launching an electronic book reader, the Kindle, Amazon has been building a digital music store and now offers downloadable movies, television shows and videos on its Web site.

It also has a deal with TiVo, maker of the popular digital video recorder, that allows users to rent videos from Amazon's Unbox service and watch them on their televisions.


Blockbuster Launches In-store Kiosk Prototype

Blockbuster unveiled a prototype of an in-store kiosk for downloading movies at its annual meeting on Wednesday, part of its plan to transform into more than just a DVD rental chain.

The sleek prototype kiosk unveiled Wednesday is just one way that Blockbuster is looking to deliver movies digitally. The design, which Keyes said is likely to change with testing, offers a range of features to help customers make movie choices, including previews and recommendations. Keyes said the company is working to reduce the download time for movies to about 30 seconds.

The company is also working on allowing customers to download movies through set-top boxes or IPTV.

The kiosk prototype, which will begin testing within the next three weeks, was developed by NCR Corp. For the pilot launch, the kiosks will be compatible with an Archos portable device, but the company ultimately plans for the kiosk to be an "open system" and widely compatible with a range of devices.


Netflix's DVD-by-mail to Peak in 5 years?

Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, said he expects the company to have 10 million subscribers by next year, but the DVD-by-mail business will peak in as soon as five years.

"We think the by-mail business is very strong but will probably peak in the next five years," said Hastings at the Netflix Investor Day in San Francisco on Wednesday. A slide at the presentation showed the peak in five to 10 years.

"Our key challenge is growing earnings per share and subscribers while funding streaming (online video) which should give us years of subscriber and earnings expansion," he told analysts.