Just a day after Steve Jobs showed off a freshly shrunk, content-backed Apple TV, Amazon is taking the Cupertino company's streaming policy head-on. With Apple, you're renting — a dollar only gets you so much time. With Amazon, your buck lasts forever.
That is to say, when you pay for a show on Amazon, you can access it for as long as you like, provided Amazon is still around and the Internet hasn't attained sentience and enslaved the world or something. (And even then, maybe you'll still be able to access said shows.)
You can also download the bought episodes to your computer provided you're running a Windows rig. It doesn't look like the same is true with Macs and Apple mobile devices, such as an iPod Touch (though that could be subject to change).
Still, if presented with the option of paying a dollar an episode for a few days or for the rest of your life, the value-per-buck here is obvious. In many cases they are even the same shows, as ABC and Fox both sell content on Amazon. Now all we need is an Amazon app for Apple TV and we're good to go, though it's worth mention that some set-top boxes, such as the Roku, run Amazon's video on demand service.
Amazon, via AppleInsider, via TFTS
