Amazon, TiVo team up for "Amazon Unbox on TiVo"

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc has joined hands with digital video recording service TiVo to introduce a service that would let users watch videos rented or bought over the Internet directly on televisions, a fastest way to get the stuff one can’t wait to see.

The two companies on Wednesday launched “Amazon Unbox on TiVo,” a soon-to-be-launched service feature that will provide TiVo subscribers with the ability to rent and purchase new release movies and TV shows from leading studios and networks including CBS, Fox Entertainment Group, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

The "Amazon Unbox on TiVo" feature will give purchaser the convenience of choosing shows or movies sold at the online retailer's website and have them transferred to TiVo subscribers. The content from "Amazon Unbox on TiVo" will be available to download to a subscriber's TiVo box from computers for playback on their television set.

"TiVo is taking the best way to watch TV and making it the best way to get popular movies and television shows from major Hollywood studios," said TiVo chief executive Tom Rogers. "Now, TiVo subscribers can rent and purchase movies and TV shows and download them to their television set -- all without leaving their homes."

The announcement from the new partners comes a day after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. joined hands with all six major Hollywood studios--Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal to sell digital movies and television shows on its Web site.

“Amazon Unbox on TiVo”, which is currently in beta testing among an unspecified number of TiVo customers, is expected to debut in full later this year, available for the 1.5 million broadband-connected TiVo digital video recorders.

Partnership with TiVo would boost Amazon's Unbox download service, which launched in September 2006, and will take it one step further than online video stores like Wal-Mart's or Apple iTunes, which are geared toward computers or portable devices.

The Amazon Unbox video service until now has offered thousands of movies, television shows and other videos for download to PCs and any Windows Media Video-compatible portable devices. Now, besides PCs and portable devices, video content will be available to download directly to a customer’s TiVo box for playback on their television set.

"By teaming up with TiVo, we are offering our customers another great way to watch their Unbox videos," said Amazon vice president Bill Carr.

The two companies said they will sell television episodes for US$1.99, most movies for between US$9.99 and US$14.99. Subscribers can rent movies, starting at US$1.99. Purchased videos are stored in each customer's personal list, titled "Your Media Library", at Amazon.com for future access and download.

Following the announcement, TiVo shares jumped 36 cents, or 6.6 percent, to $5.84 Wednesday on NASDAQ in midday trading, while Amazon Amazon.com's stock surged $1.16, or 3 percent, to $39.43.