Technology, Tv Show | featured news

Amazon is letting viewers help choose its new lineup of TV shows, scuttling a secretive, wasteful process once reserved for Hollywood taste-makers... There used to be just one way for getting shows on TV. Networks would spend tens of millions of dollars ordering scripts and shooting pilots and then show the fruits of their labor to focus groups. A small group of executives would cherry-pick a few promising shows to put on TV, hoping they'd be a hit with bigger audiences. The process was unscientific, expensive, and often didn't work. It's still how most of the industry operates today.

Amazon.com Inc unveiled a new effort to develop original comedy and children's TV shows to distribute over the company's video streaming service.

Amazon.com said it struck a deal with Fox to offer online video-streaming of the company's movies and television shows.

The social networking giant is looking to develop features that will allow users to share their favorite TV shows, news, music and other media.

Hulu is close to renewing its deal for TV shows from its media-company owners in a move that would secure the future of the online video site but could delay Hulu's access to some shows for its free service.

Media chiefs this week sounded a note of caution on Apple's 99-cent digital-rental service for TV shows amid a division in the industry on whether to participate.

Apple's apparently pitching to networks a subscription plan that would deliver all your TV shows through iTunes for $30 a month, with the goal of launching it next year.