Amazon wants to spoil Apple's rally

WHILE THE TAME PRESS is drooling all over themselves about what Apple will announce at its rally later today, it appears that Amazon wants to stick a spanner in the works.

One of the rumours is that Steve Jobs will announce a cunning plan to flog television programmes through Itunes. This will go along with something called ITV that the Apple press claims will make cable companies give up and retire to a monastery.

But Amazon has made an announcement that would appear to be a spoiler for Jobs' dreams. It will be offering a subscription service that will deliver TV shows and movies over the Internet, which sounds jolly similar to the rumours and speculations we've been hearing about Apple's ITV plans.

The Internet retailer has pitched a web-based subscription service to several major media companies, including NBC Universal, Time Warner, News Corp and Viacom. Amazon's video content subscription push is a challenge to rivals such as Netflix, Google's Youtube, and if Jobs announces it, Apple.

Amazon appears to be targeting a model that's similar to Netflix, focusing on older, back catalogue content.

According to the Wall Street Journal, media companies often view the availability of older content on the web as less of a threat.

Amazon's subscription service reportedly will be viewable on a web browser or through devices such as Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and Microsoft's Xbox 360 videogame console. µ