Amazon is dumping popular media-streaming devices by two huge rivals to bolster its own video-streaming service, it announced in an email yesterday to marketplace sellers. The retailer won't be accepting any new listings for Apple TV or Google's Chromecast, and all current listings will be yanked from the site by Oct. 29 because those devices don't "interact well" with video via Amazon Prime, Bloomberg reports. "Over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime," the company said in the email. "It's important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion."
The ban may not qualify as an antitrust concern, a Washington lawyer tells Bloomberg, because the Google and Apple products can be purchased elsewhere. Some, however, think the plan—which Wired calls "gross" and Slate deems "everyone's worst nightmare"—could backfire, with one analyst noting, "This has the potential to hurt Amazon as much as it does Apple and Google. As a retailer, I want to give people a reason to come to me. When I take out best-selling brands, I take away those reasons." (Indeed, Wired notes the two are the No. 2 and No. 4 top-selling streaming boxes.) Not affected by the ban, per Amazon: Sony's PlayStation, Microsoft's Xbox, and Roku's set-top device; they all work with Prime Video. (Something else Amazon is banking on: its new $50 tablet.)
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