[opendtv] =?windows-1252?Q?Amazons_Unfortunate_Streaming_Video_Plans?Message-Id: <3E33146B-439D-4649-94C2-128F9AE18EA0@xxxxxxxxx>
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:45:16 -0400
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazons-unfortunate-streaming-video-plans-2013-04-25
April 25, 2013, 6:41 a.m. EDT
Amazon’s Unfortunate Streaming Video Plans
By 24/7 Wall St.
If several media reports are true, Amazon.com Inc will release a set-top box
through which consumers can stream premier video content. Even with its huge
customer base and tremendous brand leverage, the e-commerce company will come
to the market much too late.
One of the lessons of new age media is that first into the market usually wins.
The best example of that in streaming video is Netflix Inc., which turned its
DVD-by-mail business into a streaming video one. With well over 20 million
customers, it has a commanding lead. It was followed by services from Hulu,
Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox, Sony Corp.'s PS3 and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s
service via its VUDU operation.
All these service have to compete with the ancient cable and satellite
services, which have had set-tops on home televisions for years. Companies such
as Dish Network Corp. and Comcast Corp. have had tens of millions of customers
using their services and these have evolved so that they include DVR and VOD
features. Those services by themselves are a formidable block to entry for all
of those that have come after them.
There is no telling within any consumer-based industry when the number of
customer options becomes too great to support all of them. People usually do
not have two cell phones, but often have three or four TVs. People may use
several e-commerce sites, but they can pick and choose what they like on them,
and may not buy anything at all.
Streaming video falls into another class. The basic service is almost never
free, and the streaming video programs almost always cost extra. Most services
have overlapping program libraries. It is hard to see how any one has an
advantage over any other. That is except for those that have had market share
for years.
Amazon is too late to the streaming video industry to have any success.
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