Amazon Launches Video Streaming Service

In January I wrote about Amazon buying a popular European movie streaming service, and how many of us were assuming this meant Amazon would soon be entering into the video streaming business.

Apparently "soon" meant about a month, because Amazon has officially released a video streaming service for their prime members. Although a prime membership on Amazon costs $79 per year, the video streaming service is free, which is a great additional feature.

For those debating whether to go with Netflix, Hulu or Amazon for their streaming needs, that $79 per year makes Amazon the cheapest of the three, at about $6.60 per month.

The downside of Amazon's service right now boils down to two things: clunky navigation and less titles than their established streaming counterparts.

However, I expect Amazon to tweak their system a little bit over the next couple of months, and this is a big first step for the online retailing giant in gaining a solid foothold in the Netflix/Hulu video streaming conglomerate.

Video Post: Dawn of a New Day for Online Video?

In this week's Daily Axioms video post, I look into a recent ComScore report showing that Hulu is still getting twice as much online traffic as five major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW) combined. More importantly, I discuss what this may mean for the future of online video and whether or not we'll continue to see more and more professionally-produced content with Hulu and Netflix.

Next-flix? Amazon Buys Lovefilm

The proliferation of mobile devices has paved the way for streaming video to see huge growth over the past year. As of right now, the two giants of streaming video content are Hulu and Netflix.

Obviously there are other services out there, but those two are the ones who are dominating the market share. However, we could see a strong contender emerge with today's announcement that Amazon has bought Lovefilm, a movie streaming and rental service.

Amazon already has a similar service, but it hasn't achieved the success of some of its other service like its music downloading and e-book sales. This move should lead to a greater focus on Amazon's movie streaming, as it comes at an interesting time.

I say that given the somewhat-unclear status of Hulu after the approved merger of Comcast and NBC (which is a huge deal, by the way). And although it appears Hulu is safe from any sweeping changes, until the merger actually happens no one can know for sure. But regardless of what does happen, the speculation alone could cause Hulu to suffer a little bit, opening the door for Amazon to gain a foothold.

What I would like to see is some integration with one of Amazon's most-popular properties, IMDB. I'm envisioning some sort of "Add to Queue" button next to the movie titles on IMDB.

Either way, this is probably good news for existing Amazon customers who haven't dived in to the movie streaming waters quite yet.

13 Places To Get Online Inauguration Coverage

Barack Obama's Inauguration Ceremony takes place on Tuesday. Although tickets sold out fast, you can still get very good coverage if you know where to look on the Internet.

1. Major Television Networks Online - All the major TV networks are broadcasting a web stream of the events. Check out ABC.com, CBS.com, MSNBC.com, FOXNews.com, and CNN.com for each network's coverage.

2. Major Newspaper's Online Video - Many of the major print newspapers are also broadcasting video feeds of the event. USAToday.com, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

3. Hulu - Hulu will be live streaming the inauguration and the stream is embeddable. More content on Obama, past speeches, and commentary can be found on the Obama Presidency page.

4. Current TV and Twitter - Current TV and Twitter are partnering on inauguration day to add real-time Tweets to the live TV broadcast of the event. Using the hashtag "#current," many of the Tweets will be added into the TV broadcast. You can follow the inauguration on Twitter by viewing the live feed streams for #inauguration, #inaug09, and #dctrip09 (for those road tripping to DC).

5. Facebook Updates with CNN - CNN and Facebook have partnered for the Inauguration. Not only will the swearing in be live streamed, but users can RSVP to the event and then provide status updates during the event. A window will show all your friend's updates on the event.

6. Text Messages From Obama Team - Text "History" to 56333 to receive periodic updates from the Obama team about inauguration happenings and events. Click here for more info.

7. Livestation - Wonder what the rest of the world outside of the US will be thinking? At Livestation.com, you can switch inauguration coverage between a variety of international perspectives including Al Jazeera English, the BBC World News, C-SPAN, euronews, and France 24.

8. Flickr Stream From Presidential Inaugural Committee - Head on over to Flickr to see tons of photos of the inaugural happening from DC. Good pictures of the stage construction process and more.

9. YouTube - The Presidential Inaugural Committee has set up an official Inauguration Page on YouTube. If you join the group, you can post your own videos from the events.

10. Joint Congressional Committee - The Joint Congressional Committee will be live streaming the entire event. There is also a wealth of information on their site about what happens on inauguration day, the history of past inaugurations, and video from historic inaugurations of the past.

11. Joost - Joost will be live streaming CBS' feed on the Everything Obama page.

12. Terra - Hispanic-focused Terra will show both English and Spanish streams of the event.

13. Live Earth - Live Earth created a video channel for the inauguration where users can submit short videos giving Obama ideas about how he can use green technologies to change the country and help our environment. Some of the videos will be shown in DC the day before the inauguration.

UPDATE:
(Bonus)
14. Obama Inaugural Twitter - The Official Obama Inaugural Committee Twitter has got tons of info that will help keep you up to the second.

Less Is More

Hulu figured something out: it's better to have a few ads than to have a ton. Having a small number of ads makes people more likely to notice them, and less likely to find them annoying. Advertisers, in turn, will pay more for this lack of competition.

Maybe TV will learn a lesson from Hulu? With a crashing market economy, the economic gap will only widen. The successful corporations will have less competition and more money to do with as they choose, such as sponsoring a TV show. You know how sometimes a network will show a movie commercial-free "brought to you by"? It almost inspires a sense of gratitude that the company is saving you from an onslaught of advertising. If this is the future, I look forward to it.

Hulu: The Future of TV?

The writers strike last TV season made one thing clear - more people are watching TV online than every before. The entire strike was centered on determining the appropriate pay for TV shows aired online.

With this said, Hulu is a pioneer of online television. First off, it is completely legal. Second, it has a quality line-up of videos and a major network (nbc) backing it.

The service is free due to 3 short commercial breaks placed throughout a half hour episode.

Services like Hulu are becoming popular for the same reason DVR is so popular. People are busy. They like to set their own schedules. Hulu and DVR give them this opportunity.

I've tried Hulu and I highly recommend it.