Amazon Prime Video has some of the best original TV shows and Oscar-worthy new movies (Best Picture winner Moonlight is coming soon), which is why it infuriates me that I can’t stream that content directly on my Apple TV. But that’s about to change.
Recode is reporting that Apple and Amazon are working out their long-standing differences to bring a Prime Video app to the Apple TV App Store sometime this summer. Insert literally all the raised hands emojis here.
My current workaround is to open the Prime Video app on my iPhone and then use AirPlay to beam whatever I’m watching to my Apple TV. It’s easy enough to do, but when faced with the choice of going through those extra steps or just watching whatever’s new on Netflix, I almost always choose the latter. (This is why I’m still not caught up on the third season of Transparent. I know, I know, don’t @ me.)
No word on whether Amazon plans to start selling the Apple TV again—the company kicked the device out of its store almost two years ago. At the time, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that decision was because the Apple TV didn’t support Prime Video. Why? Money. Bezos said a Prime Video app wasn’t available for Apple TV because of a lack of “acceptable business terms.” When asked by The Verge whether those business terms involved Apple’s 30 percent App Store cut, Bezos said “private business discussions should stay private.”
If Amazon Prime Video ends up on the Apple TV this summer, it’s because “acceptable business terms” have been agreed to. Whatever those terms are, it’s good news for avid TV watchers like myself.