Amazon Video inches closer to Apple TV →
Recode’s Peter Kafka and Jason Del Ray:
The tech giants, who are increasingly competing for customers’ time, eyeballs and money, are close to an agreement to bring an Amazon video app to Apple’s Apple TV set-top box, according to people familiar with the two companies.
Amazon employees expect the app to show up on Apple’s hardware in the third quarter of the year.
That move would allow Amazon Prime Video subscribers to easily watch TV shows and movies from the service using Apple TV.
For the past few years, Amazon subscribers have only been able to watch their shows on Apple TV using Apple’s comparatively cumbersome Airplay system, which involves connecting another Apple product, like an iPhone, to an Apple TV using a Wi-Fi connection.
Amazon’s Fire TV won the battle for my living room last year thanks to a very nice Playstation Vue app along with the access to Prime video content. The Apple TV was relegated to the bedroom TV, but in that time it’s added a solid Vue (though it’s hampered a bit by Apple’s remote).
With the addition of Amazon Video, the Apple TV may get a run at my living room again. I still love the Fire TV, but the new interface released in December didn’t do much for me.