Wednesday, February 08, 2012, 11:19 am

Viacom deal brings MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon shows to Amazon Prime

By Katie Marsal

Amazon on Wednesday confirmed that it has inked a deal with another major content provider — Viacom — to bring shows from networks like MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TV Land VH1 to its Prime Instant Video subscription service.

The latest deal is another example of how Amazon continues to enhance its content offerings to better compete with services like Netflix as well as Apple's iTunes. The Viacom agreement brings 2,000 new titles to Amazon Prime Instant Video.

New shows available to those who subscribe to the $79-per-year Amazon Prime service include Nickelodeon's "Avatar: The Last Airbender," "Dora the Explorer," iClarly," and "Yo Gabba Gabba;" Comedy Central's "Chappelle's Show," "The Sarah Silverman Program," and "Strangers with Candy;" MTV's "The Real World," and "Jersey Shore;" and TV Land's "Hot in Cleveland."

In addition to access to the Prime Instant Video content, subscribers also receive free two-day shipping on millions of items sold through Amazon. Eligible orders can also be upgraded to overnight shipping for $3.99.

Prime Instant Videos can be viewed on Amazon's color touchscreen tablet, the Kindle Fire, as well as Mac, PC, Roku, and select TVs, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players.


The deal was made official only hours after rumors first surfaced that Amazon was near finalizing a deal with Viacom for video content. The Web video licensing agreement with Viacom is in addition to existing Amazon Prime deals with Fox, CBS, NBC Universal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros., and Sony.

Though Amazon does compete with Apple's iTunes for the sale of music, movies and TV shows, the online retailer's primary focus is said to be taking on Netflix in the subscription video market. Apple does not offer a subscription video option, but years ago was said to have pursued subscription TV deals with content providers, though those plans never came to be.