Audio Video News

Almost lost in the aftermath of Wal-Mart's big announcement that it was tackling the movie download space was the unveiling last week of the deal between Amazon and TiVo to partner on movie and TV show downloads. TiVo owners with broadband connections can now shop for video downlods from Amazon's Unbox and have the movies and shows sent directly to the TiVos- in their living rooms, connected to their TVs. The new service is called Amazon Unbox on TiVo.

TiVo and Amazon believe this offering will open up the broaband download market substantially by taking the downloads away from the PC and directly to the living room. This is a big advantage over other download services, which download the shows and movies only to a PC, leaving consumers to move the content from there to the living room or to portable devices. The new service began testing last week with broad availability to broadband TiVo owners ramping over the next several weeks.

TiVo owners register their machines with Amazon and then whenever they purchase or rent content from Unbox they have the option of sending the file to the TiVo as well as the PC. Other than the download cost there is no additional charge for the service on either Amazon or TiVo's side. Downloads must be watched within 30 days, and once it starts playing it must be watched within 24 hours. It knows.

Of Amazon's Unbox content partners, CBS, Fox, Paramount, Universal and Warner have agreed to make their content available to TiVo subscribers. Sony is among those who haven't agreed yet, but TiVo claims agreeemnts are imminent.