News 

Customers of Amazon's new store will be able to start watching any of 40,000 movies and television programs immediately after ordering them, according to a report in the New York Times.

The service is different from most internet video stores, such as Apple's iTunes and the original incarnation of Amazon's video

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store, which require users to wait as video files are downloaded to their hard drives.

Amazon could not be immediately reached for comment.

Amazon has also struck a deal with electronics giant Sony to place its internet video store on the Sony Bravia line of high-definition TVs, the paper claims.

Amazon will pursue similar deals with other makers of TVs and internet devices, claims Bill Carr, Amazon's vice president for digital media.

Amazon Video on Demand will be accessible to a limited number of invited Amazon.com customers today before it opens more broadly to other users later this summer.

If past history is anything to by, British viewers will have to wait even longer to access the store. Amazon's DRM-free MP3 store has still to cross the Atlantic, despite repeated promises of a European launch. The company's eBook reader, Kindle, also remains a US-only product.