Just months after launching a revamped version of their online video portal, AOL has decided to ditch its year-long experiment with offering movies and television shows for sale online, instead partnering with Amazon.com Unbox to offering digital video downloads to its users. Neither AOL nor Amazon disclosed the terms of the deal, but Amazon will apparently be sharing advertising revenue with AOL.
AOL launched its pay-to-download service in mid-2006 with content from 20th Century Fox, Sony, and Universal. AOL later added movies and televisions shows from Paramount, including the Star Trek franchise and classic movies like Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Amazon Unbox recently partnered with NBC Universal to offer downloadable versions of current NBC television episodes after the studio withdrew from iTunes in August. NBC’s contract with iTunes has now expires, and nearly all content from NBC networks is now gone removed from the iTunes service, with the only exceptions being shows like Stargate Atlantis which are shown on NBC networks (Sci-Fi, in this case) but aren’t owned by NBC.
Google also got out of the paid video download business, shutting down commercial sales via Google Video in August of this year in favor of promoting video sharing site YouTube.
