Last week, BuzzFeed News reported Amazon and Apple were in talks to set differences aside and bring Amazon Prime Video to the Apple TV set-top box. The announcement may happen during WWDC 2017, which starts this June 5.
The deal may also involve the return of the Apple TV to Amazon’s product offerings, according to the report. The online retail giant stopped selling both Apple’s streaming device and Google’s Chromecast back in 2015 since neither of them would support the Prime Video platform directly.
This year’s Worldwide Developers Conference is returning to the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, after a decade-long run in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Only 5,000 get a chance to purchase a ticket to Apple’s event, and the company will select them at random.
Amazon and Apple bury the hatchet to appeal to wider audiences
Recode also reported the two tech giants were on course to reach an agreement over the future of their competing platforms. The negotiations might have been between CEOs Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook directly.
Initially, Amazon dropped the Apple TV from its digital store because it disagreed with the company’s terms of service for third-party Apple. Cupertino takes a 30 percent cut off of in-app purchases and subscriptions, a significant blow at Amazon Prime Video’s model.
At the time, it also stopped selling Chromecast devices, albeit for a different reason. The company cited “customer confusion” among those looking to get Google’s streaming stick and other competing products rather than their own Fire TV devices.
What did Jeff Bezos say about the new deal?
Then, last year at Code Conference, Jeff Bezos rarely agreed to discuss the matter in public. Although he said private business discussions should remain so, he did give some insight as to why the apparent animosity between the companies:
“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. IF YOU CAN’T, THEN WE DON’T WANT TO SELL IT TO OUR CUSTOMERS.”
He said consumers who bought streaming boxes through Amazon, did so believing that they would be able to play Amazon Prime Video content on those devices by default. When they find out they can’t, they return them, and that is bad business for Bezos and co.
Still, Amazon Prime Video remains the largest missing feature from the Apple TV, and it is undeniable that the e-commerce giant needs to get on every platform it can to keep growing and succeeding as a content producer.
Inside sources suggest the official Prime Video app for Apple TV will be introduced at WWDC 2017, but that the proper launch could be delayed until Q3. There is no word if this is also the case with Google’s Chromecast.
Source: BuzzFeed News