The possibility that the world’s largest online retailer Amazon.com is considering opening its own online pay television service heated up the race in the US to provide the service, according to reports on Wednesday.
In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon dismissed the reports, saying “we are not planning to license television channels or offer a pay-TV service.”
The Journal and Bloomberg news service quoted unidentified people familiar with the matter as saying Amazon has approached large media companies about the issue.
Sony has already announced its intention to offer web-based pay TV, and Google is reported to be looking in the same direction.
The TV market is currently tightly held by cable and satellite companies.
The giant chip maker Intel said on Tuesday that it had sold technology that had been years in development to Verizon Communications, giving up on its own Internet launch plans. Verizon, which already offers TV via fibre optic cables around the country, indicated it will use the Intel technology purchase to launch its own nationwide internet plan.
Before his death in 2011, Apple founder Steve Jobs made a bid to secure rights for a comprehensive online television service.