Roku Streams Amazon.com Video

Amazon.com's 40,000 video titles are now available for rent or purchase to users of Roku's $99 Internet-to-TV player.

The two companies announced their partnership in January. Amazon's Video on Demand service provides movies for purchase or rent the same day they are released on DVD and TV shows for download-to-own the day after they air.

The Roku player, which uses NXP Semiconductors' PNX8935 media processor, was the first device available that accessed Netflix's streaming-movie service.

"We are excited to give our customers access to Amazon's massive catalogue of top movies and TV shows -- including many new releases," Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood said.

Wood, previously founder of DVR startup ReplayTV, had been tapped by Netflix to develop such a device for the DVD-by-mail company but Netflix abandoned those plans in favor of a partner strategy.

Over the course of the next week, according to Roku, current customers will receive a free, automatic software update giving them access to the Amazon Video on Demand service. The Roku digital video player is available for purchase only via Roku.com and Amazon.com.