Technology, Web-based Video Streaming Services | featured news

Media chiefs this week sounded a note of caution on Apple's 99-cent digital-rental service for TV shows amid a division in the industry on whether to participate.

Amazon.com Inc has approached media companies with a proposal for a subscription service that gives users unlimited access to some television shows and movies over the Internet in a bid to rival Netflix Inc, two people familiar with the talks said on Tuesday.

Hulu, the online-video site owned by three large media companies, is exploring an initial public offering.

The MPAA has previously been critical of the negative effect it says BitTorrent has on the movie industry, but a recent experiment in a Norwegian movie theater shows that it might actually be of use to them.