AMAZON BEEFING UP U.K. VIDEO SERVICE TO COUNTER NETFLIX

A day after Netflix announced that it would be rolling out its streaming service in the U.K. and Ireland, Amazon said that it was beefing up its own LoveFilm disc and streaming rental service in those countries. Members subscribing to its Amazon Prime service would also receive free movie streams. The tight competition is clearly proving costly to Amazon, which reportedly is selling its Kindle tablets at a loss in hopes of attracting digital book readers. A new color Kindle (the Kindle Fire) that it recently unveiled is also capable of displaying movies and TV shows and is priced at a remarkably low $199 — $10 less than it costs to make. “Based on what we’re seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we’re increasing capacity and building millions more than we’d already planned,” CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. Amazon shares were down 11 percent at midday trading to $201.78. But in an analysts call on Tuesday, Amazon CFO Thomas Sckutak maintained that Amazon was not going to become another Netflix.