Amazon on Wednesday teamed up with Viacom to expand its Amazon Prime service with streaming access to TV Shows from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT, and Logo.
The deal brings the number of shows available via Instant Prime Video to 15,000, Amazon said.
The company is expected to add the new content over the next several months. Shows include MTV hits like The Hills, Jersey Shore, The Hard Times of RJ Berger, and several seasons of The Real World, as well as Comedy Central shows such as Chappelle's Show and The Sarah Silverman Program. For kids, Amazon will offer Nickelodeon staples like iCarly, Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Yo Gabba Gabba, and TV Land's Hot in Cleveland will also be added to the mix.
"Over the last year we have received fantastic customer feedback about Prime Instant Video. We are constantly working to improve the service by adding the shows that our customers enjoy the most," Brad Beale, director of video content acquisition for Amazon, said in a statement. "This deal with Viacom brings Prime customers and Kindle Fire users thousands of comedies, kids' shows, reality TV and much more from some of the best cable networks available."
For $79 per year, Amazon Prime offers free, two-day shipping, as well as access to the retailer's instant video library. Like Netflix, Amazon has been building up its streaming video library in recent months, inking deals with the likes of PBS, CBS, Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony, Warner Bros., IFC, Sesame Workshop, and Twentieth Century Fox.
There have been reports, however, that Amazon is also pondering a non-Prime, standalone video service that would compete directly with Netflix. In a recent letter to shareholders, Netflix said it expects Amazon to continue offering video services via Amazon Prime, but would not be surprised if the retail giant also launched a standalone video service a lower price point than Netflix.
But Amazon and Hulu have "a fraction of our content," according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells, while total viewing hours are each "less than 10 percent of ours." Last month, Netflix revealed that users watched approximately 2 billion hours of content during the fourth quarter.
The Amazon-Viacom tieup, meanwhile, comes two days after Verizon and Redbox owner Coinstar announced plans to launch their own joint venture, which will offer DVD rentals and streaming video.
The new Amazon content will be available on more than 300 devices, including the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. For more, see PCMag's full review of the Fire and the slideshow below.