Amazon is reportedly interested in building a live TV service of sorts as analyst Dan Rayburn at StreamingMediaBlog reports the company has approached NBCUniversal and CBS to gauge an interest in providing content (via Bloomberg).
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(Update: We may have gotten a bit too excited about this announcement. While Amazon hasn’t officially commented on the matter, you’ll likely need a UHDTV with HEVC decoding to watch Amazon’s 4K offerings.)
Its been said before, but 4K may finally be on the cusp of breaking through. Ultra high-definition TVs from major brands are dropping like crazy and Apple pushed out a 5K iMac just a few months ago. The hardware is there, but the content from a pricing and availability perspective is still lagging behind.
We took a step in the right direction when Netflix began offering 4K content, but quickly took a step back once we found out it came with strings attached.
Fast forward to this week. Amazon has promised there will not be any additional fees for Prime members for streaming 4K content. Before the end of this year anyone with a Prime account and a UHD display/TV will be able to gaze at Alpha House in beautiful 4K without forking over any additional cash. Selection will be extremely limited and filled with Amazon exclusives at first, but more titles will be continually added.
Of course, access to streaming 4K content is in addition to other Prime benefits like free 2-day shipping and unlimited photo storage. Sign up for a free Prime trial or student account.