Washington, March 4: Roku Inc., a privately held consumer electronics firm that designs digital media players, has announced Tuesday it has started streaming digital movie and television titles from Amazon.com’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) video-on-demand movie service directly to television sets through its set-top box.
In January, Roku, the manufacturer of a proprietary $99 set-top box that connects the Internet to televisions, and Amazon, the world’s largest internet retailer, announced that they are teaming to add Amazon's Video on Demand service to Roku Digital Video Player.
And, yesterday the two companies announced that Roku customers can now purchase or rent DVD-quality movies and TV shows– all from Amazon's Video on Demand library that has more than 40,000 movie and TV titles.
The companies said that Roku customers can for the first time purchase or rent new release movies the same day they are available on DVD and watch commercial-free TV programs the day after they air. Plus, anything they buy on the Roku box can be accessed on their PC or Mac too.
"We are excited to give our customers access to Amazon's massive catalogue of top movies and TV shows – including many new releases," Anthony Wood, Roku CEO and Founder said in a statement on Tuesday. "The launch of Amazon Video On Demand on Roku demonstrates our commitment to creating an open platform that instantly delivers the entertainment consumers want directly to their TVs."
"The $99 Roku player provides our customers with tremendous value and a compelling entertainment experience," said Roy Price, director of Amazon VOD. "Consumers are looking for inexpensive ways to watch their favorite movies and TV shows, and the Roku player meets that head-on."
The compact Roku digital player connects directly to any television set and requires a broadband Internet connection to deliver DVD-quality video instantly. The device connects to the Internet either through a wired or Wi-Fi connection.
The Seattle-based company Amazon’s Video On Demand service, formerly known as Amazon Unbox video-download service, is also available on TiVo DVRs and the Sony Bravia Internet Link, as well as on Windows PCs and Macs.
Similarly, Saratoga, California-based Roku also has partnership with Netflix, the largest U.S. movie-rental service via mail, that enables it to make Netflix's more than 12,000 digital titles available for streaming directly to TVs through its set-top box.
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