Amazon has denied rumors that it will launch a free streaming video service. Of course, that hasn’t stopped speculation about the company’s plans to take over the living room.
The rumored service was said to be an ad-supported content channel that delivered both television programming and music videos to all customers — regardless of whether or not they are currently signed up for Amazon’s $99 annual Prime membership, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cites sources familiar with the company’s plans.
Yesterday, Amazon sent out invitations to a press event to “discuss” its video business. Since the event is being led by Amazon’s VP of Kindle, many believe that the company will use this time to announce a new set-top box that will compete with Apple TV, Roku, and Google Chromecast. Yet that box definitely won’t include support for a new TV streaming service, according to an email the company sent to Variety.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors that Amazon would be launching a streaming video service focused on TV content. Back in January, the company was supposedly in early talks with several major media companies about the possibility of such a service, as VentureBeat previously reported.
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If it turns out Amazon is launching a service, the company is in a very good position to run effective TV-style commercials, thanks to the large amount of customer data the company has undoubtedly collected over the years from its online retail store.
