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Viacom Inks Broad Net-Video Pact With Amazon

Deal Brings Retailer's Prime Instant Videos to More Than 15,000 Titles

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 2/8/2012 12:34:41 PM

Turning up the heat on Netflix, Amazon.com announced a licensing agreement with Viacom that will allow members of its Amazon Prime free-shipping program to stream over the Internet "thousands" of TV shows from its cable networks, including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT and Logo.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. All of the TV show content licensed under the agreement is from prior seasons, according to Viacom.

With the Viacom content, Amazon Prime Instant Videos will now offer more than 15,000 titles. The service, which is currently available to members of the online retailer's $79-per-year free two-day shipping program, can be accessed via more than 300 different devices. Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet, introduced last fall, includes one free month of the Prime service.

With Viacom, Amazon may have the critical mass to launch a standalone streaming-video offering, in a direct challenge to Netflix -- which cut an expanded video-streaming deal with Viacom in May 2011. Separately, Verizon Communications and Coinstar's Redbox this week announced the creation of a joint venture to deliver an over-the-top video subscription service, although they did not identify content partners.

Episodes of Viacom cable shows to be available on the Amazon Instant Videos service will include: MTV's The Hills, Jersey Shore, The Hard Times of RJ Berger and several seasons of The Real World; Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show and The Sarah Silverman Program; Nickelodeon's iCarly, Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants and Yo Gabba Gabba; and TV Land's Hot in Cleveland.

Amazon has also licensed content from CBS, Fox, PBS, NBCUniversal, Sony, Warner Bros and Disney-ABC Television, among others.

"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," Amazon director of video content acquisition Brad Beale said in statement. "We now offer more than 15,000 movies and TV shows in Prime Instant Videos and are working hard to add even more great content."

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