Gunning for content-rich rivals like Netflix, Amazon just reached a major licensing deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. Among hundreds of other classic films and TV shows dating back to the ’80s, Amazon can now lure potential video-on-demand subscribers with The Terminator, Rain Man and The Silence of the Lambs.
Amazon.com Inc is about to announce a Web video deal with Viacom Inc in what sources said was one of the last steps in a plan to launch a standalone subscription service to compete with Netflix Inc. The online retailer will unveil the deal as soon as this week, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
HBO Vs. Netflix Is Next Battle Of Hastings
Netflix boss Reed Hastings believes his biggest challenger isn’t Amazon, Blockbuster or even newcomer Verizon — but Time Warner’s HBO. After a string of stumbles that have crushed his stock, Hastings braved a crowded room yesterday to tell investors that his biggest fear was HBO’s relatively new Web service, while he downplayed the rest of his streaming rivals, including reports that Verizon was looking to launch a Netflix killer.
Exclusives
Disney has re-upped a two-year-old deal with Netflix to stream older shows that aired on ABC, ABC Family and the Disney Channel. And it announced what is essentially the same deal with Amazon, which will make the shows available via its Amazon Prime streaming service.
Amazon announced a deal for access to part of Universal’s film library, its second such pact in streaming video in as many weeks. The attention around its content acquisitions suggests a budding rivalry with Netflix and a strategy of stocking up on films and TV shows for the tablet computer that the company is developing.
Amazon invested $175 million in LivingSocial last year, but Thursday it cemented a place in its own daily deals space by launching into the first local offering through AmazonLocal.
