• Reuters, Wednesday, February 7, 2007 11:15 AM

Amazon.com is seeking to differentiate itself from a crowded field by making movies purchased or rented on its Unbox service available for viewing via the digital video recorder TiVo, which itself is looking to stand out in the crowded DVR market.

The move makes Amazon.com's service the first to offer compatibility with a television. Indeed, one of the main complaints about movie downloads is the difficulty in porting them over to the home TV, the preferred medium for watching movies.

The partnership comes the day after Wal-Mart, the world's largest seller of DVDs, unveiled its downloading service. Analysts say the move by studios and retailers to offer movie downloads online comes at a crucial time. Richard Greenfield of Pali Research says 2007 could be the first year that DVD sales actually decline.

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