Amazon leak offers sneak peek at new video service

August 25, 2006

Womble used our news submit to tell us about this story at The Register, concerning a new film download service that may be coming soon. Apparently, Amazon had put up some pages and the links were not well protected, and a savvy hacker was able to take a look. In the meantime, the links have now been secured, but not quickly enough for the details to find their way to the web. The service will probably be called "Amazon Unbox Video Downloads" and will require a special download application to access the content.

It appears to be based on Microsoft Web Services Framework and acts as a simple staging post, like Apple's iTunes, which connects to the Amazon store and manages downloads, as well as acting as a player for the PC. It is likely that the player is just a skin over Windows Media Player.

There appears to be a 20th Century Fox page and a sci-fi and fantasy page in evidence, featuring the Matrix, Mad Max, Alien vs Predator and the X-Men all priced at between $9.88 and $10.97. The implication being that these were mock up prices, but Amazon is clearly of the same view as Apple, that film pricing should be $9.99 for most films, as downloads to own.

TV series' cost the same as on iTunes, at $1.99 and Amazon appeared to be offering $1.99 off downloads for an introductory period, making them free.

Amazon was advertising that customers could view the videos on their PC, TV or portable player. However, it seems clear that the only video players that are incorporated into the service are Microsoft PlayForSure players, which also means that the service is protected by Windows Media DRM.

Further details about this new download service can be read by visiting The Register here.

Source: The Register