Amazon says it won’t be announcing a free streaming TV service next week

Amazon has denied rumors that it will launch a free streaming video service. Of course, that hasn’t stopped speculation about the company’s plans to take over the living room.

The rumored service was said to be an ad-supported content channel that delivered both television programming and music videos to all customers — regardless of whether or not they are currently signed up for Amazon’s $99 annual Prime membership, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cites sources familiar with the company’s plans.

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1248237,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"media,","session":"B"}']

Yesterday, Amazon sent out invitations to a press event to “discuss” its video business. Since the event is being led by Amazon’s VP of Kindle, many believe that the company will use this time to announce a new set-top box that will compete with Apple TV, Roku, and Google Chromecast. Yet that box definitely won’t include support for a new TV streaming service, according to an email the company sent to Variety.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors that Amazon would be launching a streaming video service focused on TV content. Back in January, the company was supposedly in early talks with several major media companies about the possibility of such a service, as VentureBeat previously reported.

If it turns out Amazon is launching a service, the company is in a very good position to run effective TV-style commercials, thanks to the large amount of customer data the company has undoubtedly collected over the years from its online retail store.