• The Wall Street Journal , Monday, June 18, 2012 11:36 AM

Netflix and Amazon, two competitors in the growing market for streaming online video services, are beefing up the amount they spend on lobbying in Washington.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Netflix spent $260,000 in the first quarter, putting the company on track to double the $500,000 it spent in 2011. Amazon, by comparison, spent $650,000 on lobbying in Q1, after spending $2.2 million in 2011. 

It should be noted that Amazon’s business is much broader than that of Netflix, which is solely focused on its streaming content and mail-order DVD subscription businesses.

Even so, their spending on lobbying is dwarfed by other cable, telecom and Internet giants. The report says that Comcast, for example, spent $4.5 million on lobbying in the first quarter and nearly $20 million in 2011. AT&T also spent close to $20 million last year. Google, which owns YouTube, spent $9.7 million on lobbying last year, and has already spent $5 million so far this year. 

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »