Amazon and Viacom partner to take down Netflix

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Netflix is seeing some heavy competition from Amazon. Today, the Seattle-based online retail behemoth announced that they have struck a deal with Viacom for a massive catalog of TV shows for their Prime service.

Amazon.com, Inc. […] today announced a licensing agreement with Viacom that will allow Amazon Prime members to instantly stream TV shows from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT and Logo. This deal will bring the total number of Prime Instant Videos to more than 15,000.

Netflix, which has long used its contract with Starz for a nontrivial amount of their available streaming content, will be in for a substantial problem when that deal ends at the end of the month. This move from Viacom clearly shows that not only is Amazon very serious about competing with Netflix, but also that Viacom doesn’t want Netflix to get too big. Dominant distribution channels scare content producers like crazy it seems, and this wouldn’t be the first time Amazon steps in to be the shoulder the content producers cry on. Back when music still had DRM, the music companies were very grumpy with Apple, so they took their ball to Amazon’s court. Netflix is clearly in for a bumpy 2012.

So, what happens to Apple fans? Netflix is very popular among us because not only does it work on the Mac, but iOS and Apple TV stream Netflix content beautifully. There isn’t any way to stream Amazon Prime videos on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. Would Amazon be willing to make an iOS streaming app? Is Apple willing to put Amazon Prime on the Apple TV? Let’s hope so, because soon it might be the only way to stream some of our favorite content.

Source: Amazon PR

Grant is a writer from Delaware. In his spare time, Grant maintains a personal blog, hosts The Weekly Roar, hosts Quadcast, and writes for video games.