Amazon has announced it will offer live television channels via its Prime Video service, for an extra fee.
People will be able to subscribe to popular channels such as Discovery and Eurosport individually, without paying for a bundle of channels.
Until now, Prime Video has offered only on-demand films and TV shows in the UK.
“Amazon launched a similar thing in the US, and the big selling point was that you could get HBO and Showtime programmes, all under one umbrella,” said Tom Harrington, an analyst at Enders.
Discovery Communications is providing the best-known pay-TV channels to the service, offering Eurosport for £6.99 a month and Discovery Channel for £4.99 a month.
Viewers must also pay for an Amazon Prime membership at £79 a year.
ITV will offer an ad-free version of its streaming service and access to its free channels – such ITV 2 and ITV Be – for a monthly fee of £3.99.
“This is a starting point,” said Alex Green, managing director of Amazon Video.
Mr Green said Amazon wanted to offer customers more flexibility, by letting them subscribe to individual channels.
“Often people say they are subscribed to a big TV package but don’t watch a lot of the channels,” he told the BBC.
“Now people can try it out, pick and choose, and cancel at any time.”
Source from: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39979009
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