An Internet retailer giant is eyeing a new business that could bring a slew of TV shows and movies to an online store, The New York Times is reporting today.

 

According to Times Reporter Brad Stone, Amazon.com (News - Alert) is launching a Web store with 40,000 movies and TV shows, a service that may distinguish itself from similar vendors – such as Apple’s iTunes – because customers will be able to stream the videos straightaway. With iTunes, for example, customers must download files to their hard drives.

 

“For the first time, this is drop dead simple,” Bill Carr, Amazon’s vice president for digital media, reportedly told the Times in an interview. “Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button.”

 

Some, including Fierce Online Video’s Doug Mohney, say Amazon.com’s move brings it in direct competition with Netflix for the “instant-on video gratification” market.

 

“It also appears Amazon has worked out some sort of bundle or tie-in deal with Sony, allowing Sony Brava HDTV owners to access the site through a $300 wireless broadband device,” Mohney writes on Fierce’s Web site. “Future TVs are expected to have the capability embedded and Amazon says it will work with other hardware manufactures for both streaming and bundling in the future.”

 

According to the Times, Seattle-based Amazon is in fact seeking the tech/media world’s “holy grail”: “an Internet pipeline to the TV.”

 

“It has struck a deal with Sony Electronics to place its Internet video store on the Sony Bravia line of high-definition TVs,” Stone writes.

 

The Times reporter says that the video store’s $300 device requirement is “an awkward extra expense.”

 

But, as Mohney had pointed out also, Stone reports: “But future Bravias are expected to have this capability embedded in the television, making it even easier to gain access to the full catalog of past and present TV shows and movies, over the Internet, using a television remote control.”