Amazon Open To Streaming Content Through Cable Boxes

Amazon’s efforts in the entertainment space have largely been limited to building its own devices and promoting its own ecosystem but the company isn’t interested in only living inside its bubble, so to speak. Amazon has said that it’s open to the idea of streaming content through cable operators’ set-top boxes. It would be a move similar to the one Netflix has made in the United States and Europe. This was confirmed by Alex Green who is the managing director of Amazon Video.

“Amazon is definitely open to those partnerships and to be fair, we haven’t done as much there as Netflix have done,” Green said at the Cable Congress conference in Brussels, adding that “we do talk to all sorts of players in the cable industry.”

Liberty Global, a cable company based in Europe, might be one of the first operators to offer Amazon Prime through its set-top boxes. Liberty’s set-top boxes already offer more than 100 apps including for the likes of Netflix and YouTube.

“We would partner with almost anybody, but our interests have to be aligned,” said Balan Nair, the chief technology and innovation officer at Liberty. He adds that when the company’s and Amazon’s interests are aligned its customers will get Amazon Video on their set-top boxes, while mentioning that “but at this point there’s a reason they’re not on our box.”

Both executives declined to comment on any discussions between the two companies but we do get an idea that many issues have to be sorted out first before Amazon’s content can be pushed through cable operators’ set-top boxes.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: Amazon, Amazon Video, Entertainment