Amazon Prime jumps into bed with Viacom
Amazon continues to beef up its Prime video offering, making friends with major studios and networks in a race for content. Today the online retailer woos even more customers, building on the recent update that will introduce original content to the platform, by adding a new group of popular TV shows to its library.
New partner Viacom will begin providing hundreds of TV shows and thousands of TV episodes from Viacom to Prime Instant Video, including a collection of TV shows that customers won’t find on any other digital video subscription service.
According to the announcement, "Prime members will now have unlimited instant streaming access to popular kids programming such as Bubble Guppies, The Backyardigans, Team Umizoomi, Blue’s Clues and Victorious, along with top-rated shows from MTV and COMEDY CENTRAL like Awkward, Tosh.0 and Workaholics. Prime members will also have access to future episodes of Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, Fairly Odd Parents, Fresh Beat Band and more".
Shows will be available through Amazon Prime in the US and to LoveFilm customers in the UK and Germany. The update will also feature shows from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr for Kindle FreeTime customers.
Amazon's Bill Carr, the vice president of Digital Video and Music for Amazon, tells us "kids shows are one of the most watched TV genres on Prime Instant Video". The addition of such favorites as Dora the Explorer will certainly make the service more family-friendly.
Amazon Prime video now boasts more than 41,000 movies and TV episodes, making it a real thorn in the side of Netflix and the up-and-coming Redbox Instant. Fortunately, the market has room for multiple platforms and competition is good for customers. Paging Blockbuster....