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With Google's recently launched Nexus 7 tablet encroaching on what had been Amazon's territory led by the Kindle Fire, the e-tailer is busy beefing up what it hopes will prove a trump card. You can't stream Amazon Prime Instant Video to the Nexus 7, but you can on the Kindle Fire (provided you didn't root the device and feed it Ice Cream Sandwich), which will now enjoy access to an even larger catalog courtesy of an expanded content licensing agreement with NBCUniversal and New Media Distribution.
The expanded deal adds hundreds of popular TV episodes to Prime, including past seasons of Parks and Recreation, Parenthood, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, and more.
"We continue to invest heavily in our content selection for Prime members, and have now reached over 22,000 movies and TV episodes available instantly with unlimited streaming," said Brade Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon.
In addition the Kindle Fire, Amazon's Prime Instant Video service is available on the iPad, Roku, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and several other compatible devices. The subscription service costs $79 annually and also includes free two-day shipping on millions of items, along with one free Kindle eBook rental per month from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. If you're a student, you can access the service free for six months, after which time it flips to a discounted $39/year membership.
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Lednaara
August 24, 2012 at 6:43pm
That and the article seems a bit backwards. Amazon doesn't make a profit really off of the Kindle Fires. They make a profit off the Prime subscriptions, Kindle Books, and the movie and tv episode purchases and rentals. So the added content isn't geared at selling more Kindles as much as it's about getting more people to sign up for Prime and buy movies and tv shows from Amazon. Now that their Apple app is out, it won't be much longer before they release the Android app to the rest of the android world.
wolfing
August 24, 2012 at 11:30am
The problem with Amazon Prime video is that every deal I see they get, is pretty much deals for content already available in Netflix, so as most people have Netflix (why wouldn't they, huge amount of content for $8/month), there really is no use for Amazon Prime video. I have Amazon Prime so once in a while I check it out to see if I see anything cool I can't access in Netflix, and haven't found a thing yet.
Another bad point in this day and age, no closed caption!
So, unless they can get content that is not available in Netflix, it's just a nice little perk you get if you have Amazon Prime, nothing more.
cownaetion
August 28, 2012 at 4:43am
What horrible reasoning. This is the same stupid logic being applied as when Android came out and everyone complained about the amount of applications available. Obviously in the beginning the person to the front will have the lead but that will diminish over time. Netflix is in danger, not Amazon. You are short sighted.
Montechristo
August 27, 2012 at 9:56am
I used to think that about Amazon Instant Video, but they've come a long way of late. Just last night I wanted to show my son (13) Waynes World. Netflix doesn't have it, but Amazon did. I've also been enjoying Fringe on Amazon that, as far as I can tell, Netflix doesn't have.
If I had to choose between one or the other I'd probably go with Netflix, but Amazon has been making some significant strides of late, and I'm not sure I'd answer the same a year from now.
