Amazon is taking the streaming media battle to a new level at the end of this month by banning sales of the Chromecast and Apple TV. In an email to marketplace sellers carrying either device, Amazon indicated that new listings will not be allowed and all current inventory unsold by October 29th will be removed.
Amazon offered this explanation for the move, “Over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime….It’s important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion.”
That’s one way to phrase it. The other way would be to say that Amazon has refused to add Chromecast support to their Prime Video app and refused to create a Prime Video app for Apple TV. Both of these tasks are well within their power and minimally difficult considering they have somehow managed to offer apps for both Android and iOS.
Roku, Xbox and Playstation all gain reprieve from the ban as they do work with Amazon Prime Video, which again is entirely within Amazon’s control.
It’s certainly an interesting development in the increasingly competitive streaming media market. With all three companies releasing new hardware this fall, apparently Amazon decided it was best to thin the competition ahead of the busy holiday shopping season.
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