Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) is in talks with Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to join Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) in the e-tail giant's new cable services store front.
Charter reps didn't immediately respond to FierceCable's inquiry for comment and confirmation. But a company spokesman told the Wall Street Journal the MSO in talks with Amazon about a partnership, but has not decided on whether to pursue one.
Might other cable companies be talking to Amazon?
Cox Communications spokesman Todd Smith, meanwhile, told FierceCable, "We don't have anything to say about this one specifically, but, in general, we remain open to explore new relationships and platforms that makes it easier for customers to connect with Cox services.
On Tuesday, Comcast confirmed reports that it's partnering with the online retailer on the Amazon Cable Store, offering more than 30 Xfinity products.
According to WSJ, the deal was spawned about a year ago, when Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and company cable division chief Neil Smit visited Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in Silicon Valley.
Smit told WSJ that Bezos and his team educated Comcast on a better way of selling its services over the Internet. For instance, Amazon told Comcast how to reduce the number of clicks that it takes for a customer to complete a transaction.
"They helped us in our thinking about how to simplify the experience and just make it clean," Mr. Smit said. "We're partnering with a company that's so good at the customer experience — I think that's really what excites me."
Amazon takes a fee for each Comcast sale, the WSJ report said.
If the partnership is successful, Smit added that services such as home automation could be added to the Amazon Cable Store.
For more:
- read this Wall Street Journal story
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