Technological Determinism debunked: Professional Amateurs Stimulating Innovation!!!
It's not the INTERNET- it's us after all...
http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Technological Determinism and New Media
In '93, I completed the requirements for my MA at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) in Communication Studies and wrote a thesis on Aesthetic Innovation. It was a little controversial as I freely referred to any school of thought I wanted to in order to prove my point. The main theme of my argument is that no one can really predict anything in regards to culture and innovation. Sure we can identify groups and dynamics but saying this or that is the next big thing is almost impossible.
As for dynamics, cultural appropriation of a technology or aesthetic movement is difficult at best to define but many sociologists have identified processes that have effectively been used by marketers for some time now.
I think one of the guys who best sums up this view is Charles Leadbeater- http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/- however research into this has been going on for at least 40 years.
So basically the idea is this: contrary to what a lot of Web Gurus and Companies might like to believe and certainly evangelize, it's not the technology that determines the socially accepted consensus on it's use...
Rather, it's social groups consciously or unconsciously working together in creating a fashion/trend/fad/cultural norm.
No one can pinpoint how a certain trend will begin, no company can say we will design this and this is how it will be used. Obviously, I'm talking about technology that's meant to be used by the "general public"- I'm not talking specifically about electron microscopes although you never know...
Who would have predicted Mountain Bikes (large clunky bikes), MP3 over CDs, Rap Music, Punk Music, EMO (I mean really?), social networking, social participation (Wikipedia is something humanity as a whole should be proud of...) P2P, SMS - Really I have a cell phone but feel compelled to type a message why???
No major corporation as we know it would have said - guys we're going to build a bike much heavier than anything you've ever seen- not very attractive- and it's going to be for riding through the woods at top speed...
Skateboards another great example... Kite boarding...
A small group of users define a concept work together to create something and eventually this trickles into society as a larger whole and can become a social norm.
This how most of all technology has been developped including flight! The Wright Bros we can recall we're working out of they're bike store as "amateurs"...
So as I sit here and wish that we'll all be streaming TV and Film in future from the web, it's anybody's bet...
Customer adoption processes work the same way, the truth is we can define social groups as consumers groups, all social groups consume hence to be a punk- buy the T-shirt, buy the ticket to the show.
Clever marketers have always looked to these small groups of "consumers" who share aesthetic affinities to provide the mass with innovation...
Companies are always very quickly prepared to exploit the next big thing as long as there's all ready a market for it... AND THEN claim exclusive ownership of this NEW intellectual propriety!!!!!!!!
l8r,
Phil
As for dynamics, cultural appropriation of a technology or aesthetic movement is difficult at best to define but many sociologists have identified processes that have effectively been used by marketers for some time now.
I think one of the guys who best sums up this view is Charles Leadbeater- http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/- however research into this has been going on for at least 40 years.
So basically the idea is this: contrary to what a lot of Web Gurus and Companies might like to believe and certainly evangelize, it's not the technology that determines the socially accepted consensus on it's use...
Rather, it's social groups consciously or unconsciously working together in creating a fashion/trend/fad/cultural norm.
No one can pinpoint how a certain trend will begin, no company can say we will design this and this is how it will be used. Obviously, I'm talking about technology that's meant to be used by the "general public"- I'm not talking specifically about electron microscopes although you never know...
Who would have predicted Mountain Bikes (large clunky bikes), MP3 over CDs, Rap Music, Punk Music, EMO (I mean really?), social networking, social participation (Wikipedia is something humanity as a whole should be proud of...) P2P, SMS - Really I have a cell phone but feel compelled to type a message why???
No major corporation as we know it would have said - guys we're going to build a bike much heavier than anything you've ever seen- not very attractive- and it's going to be for riding through the woods at top speed...
Skateboards another great example... Kite boarding...
A small group of users define a concept work together to create something and eventually this trickles into society as a larger whole and can become a social norm.
This how most of all technology has been developped including flight! The Wright Bros we can recall we're working out of they're bike store as "amateurs"...
So as I sit here and wish that we'll all be streaming TV and Film in future from the web, it's anybody's bet...
Customer adoption processes work the same way, the truth is we can define social groups as consumers groups, all social groups consume hence to be a punk- buy the T-shirt, buy the ticket to the show.
Clever marketers have always looked to these small groups of "consumers" who share aesthetic affinities to provide the mass with innovation...
Companies are always very quickly prepared to exploit the next big thing as long as there's all ready a market for it... AND THEN claim exclusive ownership of this NEW intellectual propriety!!!!!!!!
l8r,
Phil
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Brandstreaming: What Is It & Who's Doing It?
Written by Richard MacManus / July 28, 2008 2:43 AM / 30 Comments
If there's a hot new social media trend happening, you can bet that companies are trying to find a way to use it too. It happened of course with blogging, it happened with Twitter, and it is now happening with FriendFeed and other lifestreaming apps.
Indeed RSS vendor Pheedo has coined a neat term for this: brandstreaming [Update: Brian Solis notes in the comments that Pheedo probably didn't coin it]. Pheedo defines a brandstream as "a consistent flow of content created by a brand".
To back up its case for brands using lifestreaming tools, Pheedo points to a recent Universal McCann report stating that content consumption outside of websites has increased 153% in the last 9 months. Overall, 53% of online users are consuming content outside of a publisher's site - through the use of widgets, RSS readers, social networks and mobile devices.
Those are incredible stats, which put into stark focus the need for companies to engage with users outside of their own website. As our own Alex Iskold wrote last week, companies should do this not just by using APIs, but making use of all the major consumer web platforms.
Can Companies Really Use Lifestreaming?
Alex didn't mention FriendFeed in his post, perhaps because FriendFeed and other lifestreaming apps are relatively new to the Internet scene. But Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang, who follows how companies use social media more than most, has been looking into how brands will use FriendFeed. He discusses the concept of the "Social Media Press Release" (SMPR), which he defines as more than just a company announcement - it also "provides links and assets to social media: blogs, images, videos, tags, etc." He cites Ford's Social Media Press Release room called "Digital Snippets" as one example.
But let's step back a moment and look at brandstreaming from the user's point of view. It's fairly obvious why companies want to get their brand out into social media sites like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and then wrap it up into feeds. It's to get their brand out beyond their website, to engage users and entice them into discussions about their products. But what's the motivation for users to subscribe to those 'brandstreams'?
Realistically, brandstreaming is probably going to work best for consumer brands that have a high lifestyle appeal. Ford would fit into that category, although it's not a beloved consumer brand like say Apple or Sony. I did a search around FriendFeed tonight to see if I could find an official presence from Apple, Sony, Coca-Cola and a few other popular brands. But so far at least, those popular consumer brands aren't doing much brandstreaming.
Pandora Experimenting
One early adopter company though is the online music service Pandora. Lucia Willow, the Pandora Community Manager, has nabbed a presence for Pandora on many of the trendy social media places. She left this list in the comments to Jeremiah Owyang's post mentioned above:
http://friendfeed.com/pandoraradio
http://twitter.com/pandora_radio (which Lucia says has been "a *fantastic* resource for us")
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pandora/5919726343
http://getsatisfaction.com/pandora
http://flickr.com/photos/pandora_radio/
http://www.myspace.com/pandoraradio
Pandora's FriendFeed site has about 70 people subscribed to it so far. Lucia admitted that Pandora is just testing it, and by the looks of the recent activity it's being used in much the same way that Pandora is successfully using Twitter - to communicate with its user base and encourage them to use Pandora.
Cisco's Advertising BrandStream
Another example of brandstreaming is Cisco. In the post linked above, Pheedo sings the virtues of brandstreaming as a way for companies to get their brands in front of consumers, but also as a new kind of advertising tool.
Pheedo ran an ad campaign for Cisco which, in their words, was "designed as an integrated Social Media ad network campaign with the goals of driving 1) traffic, 2) newsletter sign-ups, and 3) RSS subscriptions." The Cisco brandstream included video, press releases, customer stories and product updates. [disclosure: Pheedo has run some RSS ads for RWW, via FM Publishing. It's possible that the Cisco campaign was one of them, but I am not sure]
Conclusion
Clearly it's early days for this so-called brandstreaming. Whether people will want to subscribe to brands in lifestreaming apps like FriendFeed is a question still to be answered. I can see the attraction for consumer brands with a cult following, like Apple. Other brands, including the likes of Ford and Cisco, will probably struggle to interest consumers in highly social apps like FriendFeed.
Let us know in the comments any examples you've come across of companies 'brandstreaming'. Do you think it will work for most companies, or is it yet another social media trend that you'd prefer companies to keep their fingers out of?
If there's a hot new social media trend happening, you can bet that companies are trying to find a way to use it too. It happened of course with blogging, it happened with Twitter, and it is now happening with FriendFeed and other lifestreaming apps.
Indeed RSS vendor Pheedo has coined a neat term for this: brandstreaming [Update: Brian Solis notes in the comments that Pheedo probably didn't coin it]. Pheedo defines a brandstream as "a consistent flow of content created by a brand".
To back up its case for brands using lifestreaming tools, Pheedo points to a recent Universal McCann report stating that content consumption outside of websites has increased 153% in the last 9 months. Overall, 53% of online users are consuming content outside of a publisher's site - through the use of widgets, RSS readers, social networks and mobile devices.
Those are incredible stats, which put into stark focus the need for companies to engage with users outside of their own website. As our own Alex Iskold wrote last week, companies should do this not just by using APIs, but making use of all the major consumer web platforms.
Can Companies Really Use Lifestreaming?
Alex didn't mention FriendFeed in his post, perhaps because FriendFeed and other lifestreaming apps are relatively new to the Internet scene. But Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang, who follows how companies use social media more than most, has been looking into how brands will use FriendFeed. He discusses the concept of the "Social Media Press Release" (SMPR), which he defines as more than just a company announcement - it also "provides links and assets to social media: blogs, images, videos, tags, etc." He cites Ford's Social Media Press Release room called "Digital Snippets" as one example.
But let's step back a moment and look at brandstreaming from the user's point of view. It's fairly obvious why companies want to get their brand out into social media sites like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and then wrap it up into feeds. It's to get their brand out beyond their website, to engage users and entice them into discussions about their products. But what's the motivation for users to subscribe to those 'brandstreams'?
Realistically, brandstreaming is probably going to work best for consumer brands that have a high lifestyle appeal. Ford would fit into that category, although it's not a beloved consumer brand like say Apple or Sony. I did a search around FriendFeed tonight to see if I could find an official presence from Apple, Sony, Coca-Cola and a few other popular brands. But so far at least, those popular consumer brands aren't doing much brandstreaming.
Pandora Experimenting
One early adopter company though is the online music service Pandora. Lucia Willow, the Pandora Community Manager, has nabbed a presence for Pandora on many of the trendy social media places. She left this list in the comments to Jeremiah Owyang's post mentioned above:
http://friendfeed.com/pandoraradio
http://twitter.com/pandora_radio (which Lucia says has been "a *fantastic* resource for us")
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pandora/5919726343
http://getsatisfaction.com/pandora
http://flickr.com/photos/pandora_radio/
http://www.myspace.com/pandoraradio
Pandora's FriendFeed site has about 70 people subscribed to it so far. Lucia admitted that Pandora is just testing it, and by the looks of the recent activity it's being used in much the same way that Pandora is successfully using Twitter - to communicate with its user base and encourage them to use Pandora.
Cisco's Advertising BrandStream
Another example of brandstreaming is Cisco. In the post linked above, Pheedo sings the virtues of brandstreaming as a way for companies to get their brands in front of consumers, but also as a new kind of advertising tool.
Pheedo ran an ad campaign for Cisco which, in their words, was "designed as an integrated Social Media ad network campaign with the goals of driving 1) traffic, 2) newsletter sign-ups, and 3) RSS subscriptions." The Cisco brandstream included video, press releases, customer stories and product updates. [disclosure: Pheedo has run some RSS ads for RWW, via FM Publishing. It's possible that the Cisco campaign was one of them, but I am not sure]
Conclusion
Clearly it's early days for this so-called brandstreaming. Whether people will want to subscribe to brands in lifestreaming apps like FriendFeed is a question still to be answered. I can see the attraction for consumer brands with a cult following, like Apple. Other brands, including the likes of Ford and Cisco, will probably struggle to interest consumers in highly social apps like FriendFeed.
Let us know in the comments any examples you've come across of companies 'brandstreaming'. Do you think it will work for most companies, or is it yet another social media trend that you'd prefer companies to keep their fingers out of?
PC-TV Connectivity Is a Moving Target
Written by Aditya Kishore
Monday, July 28. 2008 at 10:30 AM EDT Post a comment
Internet video must get to the TV -- it's been predicted as the key requirement for the successful adoption of Internet video almost from the day video began to be distributed online.
The vast majority of consumers view video on the TV, and for Internet video to target traditional pay and broadcast TV revenue, it must be able to get there.
One could argue that Internet video is growing dramatically even without the TV. YouTube Inc. streams and page views are growing steadily and there has been an explosion of video distribution sites.
In addition, 20-inch PC monitors are common now, and that used to be a TV-sized screen for those of us who grew up before 60-inch plasmas took over living rooms. So the viewing experience isn't being compromised by screen size, and what is a TV but a monitor?
However, revenues have proven hard to find, with Google finding it difficult to monetize YouTube's massive traffic. In order to drive significant advertising or pay revenue, online video must either change consumer behavior dramatically or cater to it.
The former is certainly possible, but risky, difficult, and slow. Consumers like the lean-back TV viewing experience. Plus, TV viewing is still largely a communal/social experience, though it is becoming less so. For now, however, getting to the TV is an important requirement to drive mass market revenues, if not mass market adoption.
A couple of announcements last week demonstrated progress in that direction, but also presented new, emerging challenges for PC-TV connectivity. The first came from a newly formed CE manufacturers consortium consisting of Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korea: SEC), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Sharp Electronics Corp. , and Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE: HIT; Paris: PHA), which was created to develop an industry standard called WHDI, for Wireless Home Digital Interface. The standard will be based on technology from Israel-based Amimon Ltd.
Using this technology, any TV in the home will be able to access any video source in the home, including set-top boxes, gaming consoles, and DVD players, from anywhere in the home. TVs with Amimon's chips are expected to cost $100 more than equivalent, non-wireless TVs, and should reach the market next year. While the company is more focused on linking set tops to TVs without cables, this technology could have its greatest impact on PC-TV connectivity -- and as a result, on Internet video.
WHDI is not by any means the first technology to address this need. In fact, it's not even the first wireless approach. There are a number of others using various flavors of WiFi and ultra-wideband wireless in the home. However, none of them have as yet been sufficiently easy to set up, inexpensive, while offering a high-quality viewing experience. Still, this is a step to make high-definition video deliverable to the TV in a widely available, relatively inexpensive manner.
Unfortunately, video technology refuses to stand still in the meantime. Just as HD raised the bar for video quality and created a whole new set of bandwidth requirements, there appears to be another step up in video experiences coming down the pipe.
There are predictions that 3D video will become a mass market phenomenon within the next few years. Movie theaters, looking for a way to differentiate their experience from home theaters, have been exploring 3D movies actively for the last few years, and initial 3D releases have performed well. The 3-D Home Display Formats Task Force of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is already developing standards for 3D video transmission across video distribution channels like cable, broadcast, DVDs, and the Internet. Some TV manufacturers have 3D TVs in the market today, and it might be only a matter of time before 3D becomes the next HD.
If it is successful on the TV, online video providers will also have to offer 3D video eventually. It's not clear what kind of bandwidth challenges and other quality of service (QOS) requirements will result from 3D video transmission, but it's likely that it will reset the bar for service providers, online video distributors, and home networking technologies all over again.
Monday, July 28. 2008 at 10:30 AM EDT Post a comment
Internet video must get to the TV -- it's been predicted as the key requirement for the successful adoption of Internet video almost from the day video began to be distributed online.
The vast majority of consumers view video on the TV, and for Internet video to target traditional pay and broadcast TV revenue, it must be able to get there.
One could argue that Internet video is growing dramatically even without the TV. YouTube Inc. streams and page views are growing steadily and there has been an explosion of video distribution sites.
In addition, 20-inch PC monitors are common now, and that used to be a TV-sized screen for those of us who grew up before 60-inch plasmas took over living rooms. So the viewing experience isn't being compromised by screen size, and what is a TV but a monitor?
However, revenues have proven hard to find, with Google finding it difficult to monetize YouTube's massive traffic. In order to drive significant advertising or pay revenue, online video must either change consumer behavior dramatically or cater to it.
The former is certainly possible, but risky, difficult, and slow. Consumers like the lean-back TV viewing experience. Plus, TV viewing is still largely a communal/social experience, though it is becoming less so. For now, however, getting to the TV is an important requirement to drive mass market revenues, if not mass market adoption.
A couple of announcements last week demonstrated progress in that direction, but also presented new, emerging challenges for PC-TV connectivity. The first came from a newly formed CE manufacturers consortium consisting of Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korea: SEC), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Sharp Electronics Corp. , and Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE: HIT; Paris: PHA), which was created to develop an industry standard called WHDI, for Wireless Home Digital Interface. The standard will be based on technology from Israel-based Amimon Ltd.
Using this technology, any TV in the home will be able to access any video source in the home, including set-top boxes, gaming consoles, and DVD players, from anywhere in the home. TVs with Amimon's chips are expected to cost $100 more than equivalent, non-wireless TVs, and should reach the market next year. While the company is more focused on linking set tops to TVs without cables, this technology could have its greatest impact on PC-TV connectivity -- and as a result, on Internet video.
WHDI is not by any means the first technology to address this need. In fact, it's not even the first wireless approach. There are a number of others using various flavors of WiFi and ultra-wideband wireless in the home. However, none of them have as yet been sufficiently easy to set up, inexpensive, while offering a high-quality viewing experience. Still, this is a step to make high-definition video deliverable to the TV in a widely available, relatively inexpensive manner.
Unfortunately, video technology refuses to stand still in the meantime. Just as HD raised the bar for video quality and created a whole new set of bandwidth requirements, there appears to be another step up in video experiences coming down the pipe.
There are predictions that 3D video will become a mass market phenomenon within the next few years. Movie theaters, looking for a way to differentiate their experience from home theaters, have been exploring 3D movies actively for the last few years, and initial 3D releases have performed well. The 3-D Home Display Formats Task Force of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is already developing standards for 3D video transmission across video distribution channels like cable, broadcast, DVDs, and the Internet. Some TV manufacturers have 3D TVs in the market today, and it might be only a matter of time before 3D becomes the next HD.
If it is successful on the TV, online video providers will also have to offer 3D video eventually. It's not clear what kind of bandwidth challenges and other quality of service (QOS) requirements will result from 3D video transmission, but it's likely that it will reset the bar for service providers, online video distributors, and home networking technologies all over again.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Pay-per-click Contextual Advertising- truly interesting to Ad Agencies?
I've seen a lot recently about the power of pay-per-click contextual advertising- that is paying a search engine like Google to put your site at the top of the stack for web queries.
While the truth is, I use this all the time when searching for stuff, it is however a very dangerous double edged sword.
The thing I really think most web evangelists miss today is that sure "Internet Telephone Books"- that's what google really is let's face it- work but we're losing out on 150 years of marketing expertise here...
THE BRAND, where is the brand? what is the brand?
How can you take anyone seriously today who rants and raves about Web 2.0 and not once stops to think about how an Ad Agency functions. Why are millions of dollars thrown at these agencies??? What is and Ad Agency providing that is very powerful?
Take a good listen to the Age of Persuasion on CBC and you'll get an interesting history of the marketing world...
Just take a look at your favorite records. Pop music is one of the best examples of brand marketing available to us. Were the Beatles or the Stones, U2 or REM, Public Enemy or Rage Against the Machine just a few songs? Pop is all about symbolism and the significance of this symbolism. This really is what branding is. Associating an idea with an image or sound that on it's own is insignificant. The object becomes a representation- a physical manifestation of an idea - a concept.
If I show you a flag with red and white stripes a blue square and white stars what pops into your mind? Ah it's a windy day??? No you think of the USA and all that it stands for, perhaps a recent headline- George Bush,Barack Obama, American foreign policy. Really that's a lot of ideas being projected by a piece of material on a flag pole.
Take a look at Nike, what is Nike, shoes? clothes? No Nike is the swoosh, it's the idea of getting up and going for a run, it's about being better than we are now...
The emotional link that is created between these ideas surrounding the simple product and the consumer is what drives purchase decisions and brand FIDELITY!!!
You can never never never never forget that-NEVER!!
This is branding, now how can pay-per click contextual advertising beat that?
It can't and sure it's great to help support an impulse buy, but if Google really wants to be clever about this in some way - advertisers will be able maintain their brand visibility in this environment.
Then of course, we get to noise, when is information to much information- when it's unsolicited. So I'd have to say Google has to come up with something soon if they are to maintain their edge. They'll have to figure out how branding and search engines can work together.
While the truth is, I use this all the time when searching for stuff, it is however a very dangerous double edged sword.
The thing I really think most web evangelists miss today is that sure "Internet Telephone Books"- that's what google really is let's face it- work but we're losing out on 150 years of marketing expertise here...
THE BRAND, where is the brand? what is the brand?
How can you take anyone seriously today who rants and raves about Web 2.0 and not once stops to think about how an Ad Agency functions. Why are millions of dollars thrown at these agencies??? What is and Ad Agency providing that is very powerful?
Take a good listen to the Age of Persuasion on CBC and you'll get an interesting history of the marketing world...
Just take a look at your favorite records. Pop music is one of the best examples of brand marketing available to us. Were the Beatles or the Stones, U2 or REM, Public Enemy or Rage Against the Machine just a few songs? Pop is all about symbolism and the significance of this symbolism. This really is what branding is. Associating an idea with an image or sound that on it's own is insignificant. The object becomes a representation- a physical manifestation of an idea - a concept.
If I show you a flag with red and white stripes a blue square and white stars what pops into your mind? Ah it's a windy day??? No you think of the USA and all that it stands for, perhaps a recent headline- George Bush,Barack Obama, American foreign policy. Really that's a lot of ideas being projected by a piece of material on a flag pole.
Take a look at Nike, what is Nike, shoes? clothes? No Nike is the swoosh, it's the idea of getting up and going for a run, it's about being better than we are now...
The emotional link that is created between these ideas surrounding the simple product and the consumer is what drives purchase decisions and brand FIDELITY!!!
You can never never never never forget that-NEVER!!
This is branding, now how can pay-per click contextual advertising beat that?
It can't and sure it's great to help support an impulse buy, but if Google really wants to be clever about this in some way - advertisers will be able maintain their brand visibility in this environment.
Then of course, we get to noise, when is information to much information- when it's unsolicited. So I'd have to say Google has to come up with something soon if they are to maintain their edge. They'll have to figure out how branding and search engines can work together.
Amazon.com to stream entertainment to the living room
Amazon.com rolled out a new online store last week that lets a select group of users stream movies and television programs directly to their TVs, The New York Times reported July 17.
Amazon Video on Demand will eliminate the need for users to wait for downloads to complete before they begin watching, something that was not possible with the company’s initial foray into Web sales and distribution of entertainment.
According to the article, with the exception of Disney and ABC, which have a close distribution relationship with Apple, most studios and networks are onboard to distribute their content via Amazon Video on Demand.
Amazon has reached a deal with Sony to build access to the on-demand Internet video service into its Bravia line of HDTVs, the paper said. However, initially a stand-alone $300 Internet box from Sony that connects to existing Bravia HDTVs will be required, it reported. Amazon has expressed interest in striking similar deals with other HDTV makers.
The Amazon announcement follows an announcement in May that Netflix is making its online library available for streaming to television sets connected to the Netflix Player by Roku.
Amazon Video on Demand will be come available to a broader audience later in the summer, the paper reported.
Amazon Video on Demand will eliminate the need for users to wait for downloads to complete before they begin watching, something that was not possible with the company’s initial foray into Web sales and distribution of entertainment.
According to the article, with the exception of Disney and ABC, which have a close distribution relationship with Apple, most studios and networks are onboard to distribute their content via Amazon Video on Demand.
Amazon has reached a deal with Sony to build access to the on-demand Internet video service into its Bravia line of HDTVs, the paper said. However, initially a stand-alone $300 Internet box from Sony that connects to existing Bravia HDTVs will be required, it reported. Amazon has expressed interest in striking similar deals with other HDTV makers.
The Amazon announcement follows an announcement in May that Netflix is making its online library available for streaming to television sets connected to the Netflix Player by Roku.
Amazon Video on Demand will be come available to a broader audience later in the summer, the paper reported.
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