Amazon has announced that it has signed two new deals on Tuesday, allowing the company to offer its Amazon Prime members more TV and movie options than it's ever been able to in the past.
The first deal is with Epix, a Hollywood studio partnership between Paramount Pictures, MGM and Lionsgate. Netflix has paid $200 million a year since 2010 for exclusive rights to Epix content, but the exclusive partnership comes to an end this month. As such, Epix has offered Amazon access to its 3,000 title strong library of Hollywood blockbusters. Amazon Prime members will now have on demand streaming access to films like "The Hunger Games," "Thor," and "Iron Man 2."
The second deal will offer Amazon Prime members additional access to TV shows from NBC Universal. These will include past seasons of shows like "Parks and Recreation" and "Parenthood" and all seasons of shows like "Heros," "Battlestar Gallactica," and "Friday Night Lights."
"[Amazon] Prime Instant Video now has over 25,000 movies and TV episodes to choose from, quadruple the number we launched with in February 2011," Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon said in a statement.
Amazon Prime members have access to unlimited video streaming, free two-day shipping on items and 180,000 free books to download from the Kindle Owner's Lending Library. This content is accessible through a number of devices, including the Kindle Fire, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and through various TV's, Blu-Ray players and set-top boxes. Membership fees are $79 per year and Amazon is currently offering new users a free one-month trial to the service.
According to Bill Carr, vice president of video and music at Amazon, Amazon is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to expand its Prime Instant Video library.
"We are excited to be working with Amazon and to bring our compelling content to Amazon Prime and Kindle Fire customers," said Mark Greenberg, president and CEO of Epix.
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