Amazon adds media streaming service via CloudFront

Streaming media is a great thing and I for one look forward to the day when I can get first run new released DVDs via streaming on the day they are released. You can get a few new films the day they are released via streaming services now, but I want them all. Amazon Web Services has announced a new media streaming service today via CloudFront.

Amazon's service uses a series of 14 different edge locations to stream content with low latencies to watchers online. The service allows the streaming companies to only pay for the bandwidth they use for streaming. One of the cool features is that the streaming allows the service to charge for only what is watched, not an entire movie or video.

Amazon reports that the user needs to upload original content to the Amazon S3 service and then enable distribution in CloudFront to allow streaming access. Amazon also plans support for live events in 2010. The CloudFront servers stream content using Adobe Flash media Server 3.5.2.