The streaming TV wars just got real.
Amazon will remove the Apple TV and Google Chromecast from its website on Oct. 29, according to an email to marketplace sellers obtained by Bloomberg. The company will bar new listings for the devices and remove all traces of their existing inventory on that day. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the report to Quartz in an email.
The decision is easy to understand, if a little unexpected. The Apple TV and Google Chromecast are both direct competitors to Amazon’s own Fire TV, and neither device is compatible with Amazon’s streaming TV service, Amazon Prime Instant Video. New versions of all three devices have been announced in the last month.
“Over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime,” the spokesperson told Quartz. “It’s important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion. Roku, XBOX, PlayStation and Fire TV are excellent choices.“
In fact, Apple has made its new Apple TV open to developers, so Amazon could build a compatible Prime Video app on the Apple App Store, if it wanted. But it’s unclear if that’ll ever happen now.
The move is further evidence that Amazon is serious about building out its video operation. The company recently came out with new versions of the Fire TV and are aggressively marketing its original shows, like Transparent, which won five Emmys last month.