Amazon Instant Video is available on a lot of platforms. If you pay $99 for Amazon Prime you get access to the company’s online video streaming service, which can be accessed using apps for mobile devices, smart TV platforms, consoles and various other devices. Amazon hasn’t released an official app for Google’s relatively new Android TV platform though it offers one from Sony’s latest generation of smart TVs that are powered by Android TV. It is now being reported that the company has disabled the Instant Video apk that many were using on non-Sony Android TV systems.
A user on the XDA developers forums was able to rip the Instant Video apk from one of Sony’s latest smart TVs and got it running on non-Sony Android TV systems, such as the Nexus Player and the Razer Forge TV.
This workaround soon became common and many Instant Video users simply got the apk running on their Android TV system just to access Instant Video content, which they’re already paying for.
Multiple users are now reporting on XDA forums that this workaround has been broken, “License Error” codes are showing up if you try to use the Instant Video apk on a non-Sony Android TV system. Amazon has disabled it.
Why would Amazon do that? One of the biggest reasons is that the Android TV platform directly competes with its Fire TV platform. So why does it provide Sony’s latest smart TVs with the app? Presumably both companies had an agreement for service on smart TVs before Sony made the switch to Google’s Android TV.
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