Amazon Prime Video may come to Apple TV this summer

By

appletv
Deal may have been agreed directly between Tim Cook and Jeff Bezos.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Amazon will reportedly bring its Amazon Prime Video app to Apple TV sometime in the third quarter of this year.

Although it’s not confirmed, some industry observers have suggested that such a move would have had to be worked out directly between Apple and Amazon CEOs Tim Cook and Jeff Bezos.

If correct, this could signal a thawing in the relationship between Apple and Amazon — or at least both sides conceding ground as part of their overall strategy.

Both companies have been competing with one another in several areas, whether it be Amazon’s unsuccessful attempt to take on the iPhone with the ill-fated Fire Phone, or Apple TV vs. the Amazon Fire TV sticks. Both companies also offer rival streaming music services, while it is rumored that Apple will debut a standalone Siri device at WWDC which could compete with the Amazon Echo.

Amazon previously stopped selling the Apple TV, because Jeff Bezos suggested its inability to play Amazon Prime TV shows would confuse customers.

“We want our player, our Prime Video player, to be on the device, and we want it to be on the device with acceptable business terms,” he said about Apple TV at last year’s Recode Code Conference. “And so, you can always get the player on the device; the question is can you do so with acceptable business terms. And if you can’t, then we don’t want to sell it to our customers, because they’re going to be buying it thinking they can watch Prime Video and then they’re going to be disappointed. And they’re going to return it.”

At present, iOS users can download an Amazon Prime Video app, but it lacks a lot of functionality — including the ability to let users buy or rent individual programs, without first visiting Amazon’s website.

Source: Recode

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