TiVo, Amazon to sell movies straight to TV sets

NEW YORK (Reuters) - TiVo Inc. on Tuesday said many of its customers can now order pay-per-view movies and television shows from Amazon.com's download service directly from their TV, without a personal computer.

TiVo upgraded the "Amazon Unbox on TiVo" service to allow customers with high-speed Internet connections to select one of about 10,000 movies, shows or other video, using the TiVo remote control.

The programs, priced on average at about $4 for a movie rental and about $2 for a television show, will be viewable after it downloads to the TiVo set-top box.

Amazon and TiVo first announced the service in February, and at that time required users to select the video on a PC.

For TiVo, Unbox adds another feature that differentiates its video-recording technology from generic digital video recorders offered by cable and satellite providers.

The service comes as media and technology companies seek new ways to court viewers who split their time between viewing traditional media, surfing the Internet and playing video games.

By going directly to the TV, Amazon's TiVo partnership takes downloads a step further than online video stores like those of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Apple Inc., which are geared toward PCs or portable devices.