Amazon.com to launch new online TV, movie store: report

Amazon.com chairman Jeff Bezos speaks to the media during the company's annual shareholders meeting in Seattle, Washington May 28, 2003.

(Reuters) - Web retailer Amazon.com Inc will introduce a new online store of TV shows and movies on Thursday, called Amazon Video on Demand, The New York Times said.

Customers of Amazon's new store will be able to start watching any of 40,000 movies and television programs immediately after ordering them because they stream, just like programs on a cable video-on-demand service, the paper said.

The service is different from most Internet video stores, such as Apple's iTunes and the original incarnation of Amazon's video store, which require users to wait as video files are downloaded to their hard drives.

Amazon could not be immediately reached for comment.

Amazon has also struck a deal with electronics giant Sony to place its Internet video store on the Sony Bravia line of high-definition TVs, the paper said.

Amazon would pursue similar deals with other makers of TVs and Internet devices, Bill Carr, Amazon's vice president for digital media, told the paper.

Amazon Video on Demand will be accessible to a limited number of invited Amazon.com customers on Thursday before it opens more broadly to other users later this summer.

Films and TV shows from almost all the major studios and television networks are available for sale or rental to Amazon's customers in the United States, at varying prices depending on the program and whether people buy or rent it, the paper said.

The service will not provide content from Walt Disney and ABC, which Disney owns. Both have close relations with Amazon's digital rival, Apple, the paper said.

(Reporting by Pratish Narayanan in Bangalore; Editing by Anshuman Daga)