Overstock.com Is Going To Take On Amazon's Video Streaming Service

Overstock.com plans to launch its own video streaming service to directly challenge Amazon and Prime Video, CEO Patrick Byrne said Tuesday at the National Association of Television Program Executives conference, according to Hollywood Reporter.

The company, which claims to be the biggest online retailer after Amazon, plans to launch a vide0-on-demand service with about 30,000 titles by mid-2015, and then start a streaming service, with both acquired and original content, by the end of the year.

Amazon, which recently won a Golden Globe for its original TV series "Transparent" and just announced plans to make its own movies this year, offers films and TV shows for instant rental or purchase, as well as for free to members who pay $99 for its annual Prime membership, which also includes two-day free shipping and music streaming.

Overstock currently offers a $20 annual loyalty membership that givers shoppers 5% back on every order and 40% on select items as well as free shipping. Overstock will make the video on demand service available for to loyalty club members, and will offer the streaming service at an additional cost.

"We will be a competitor to Amazon," said Byrne. "We think our loyalty program is better than Amazon's. We give you five to 25 percent back on what you spend. So we pay people back for their digital downloads."

Both Overstock and Amazon are also competing with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, which offer free TV and movie streaming for about $95 a year. For Amazon and Overstock, the point of offering video streaming as a perk of their membership programs is win over more loyal customers to join them and hopefully spend more money on physical goods.

Byrne put Overstock's ambitions bluntly:

"We already have the traffic," he said, noting that Overstock gets 25 to 40 million unique visitors a month. "We're looking for a bigger and bigger share of their wallet."