Amazon cuts 4K movie prices before new Alexa streaming box launch

The battle of the 4K streaming boxes between two of the biggest tech companies, Apple and Amazon, has begun. Apple fired the first shot with its Apple TV 4K, and boosted the high quality content available by dropping the price of its 4K movies on iTunes.

Ahead of the imminent launch of its 4K Fire TV (with built-in Alexa voice assistant), Amazon has now followed suit, lowering the price of its 4K films from around £24 to as little as £4.

Not everything is available for £4, though you can pick up the rebooted Ghostbusters film at that price, as Pocket-Lint noted. More recent releases are priced between £5.50 to £14, with many films significantly cheaper than before.

Amazon's Fire TV does not currently have support for HDR, and the company doesn't have the same scale of 4K content as the iTunes Store - although it makes up for that with its own Prime Video streaming service.

The decision to make higher quality content more readily available is a sign that Amazon is gearing up to be a strong set-top box contender. It will be interesting to see whether the hardware backs that up.

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Adam was a staff writer for What Hi-Fi?, reviewing consumer gadgets for online and print publication, as well as researching and producing features and advice pieces on new technology in the hi-fi industry. He has since worked for PC Mag as a contributing editor and is now a science and technology reporter for The Independent.