Amazon’s 4K streaming service is coming in October

There isn’t that much to watch on 4K TVs these days, but one more big name is getting in on the action — Amazon Instant Video will support 4K video streaming from October. The first hardware partner is Samsung, which will be including Amazon’s 4K service on its UHD TVs worldwide as well as expanding availability of Netflix’s 4K content across Europe, in a wide-ranging initiative first announced at CES in January.

Bandwidth limitations being what they are, it’s debatable whether 4K streaming offers much quality increase over watching an upscaled Blu-ray disc. But the lack of 4K content continues to be an issue, and Samsung is betting that the ability to stream shows like Breaking Bad from established providers will make its UHD sets an attractive option. Sony, for its part, has focused on making its catalog of movies available to 4K TV owners with a proprietary distribution service, as well as partnering with Netflix, YouTube, and ESPN.