Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Ahead of Tablet Launch, Amazon Adds Fox Shows to Streaming Catalog

Amazon is adding more titles to its streaming video library, this time via a deal with Fox: In a note posted on his site, CEO Jeff Bezos announced that he’s now offering movies and shows like “24,” “Arrested Development” and “The X-Files.”

The shows are available via Prime Instant, the on-demand video service that’s free to anyone who pays $79 a year for the Amazon Prime shipping service. But with Amazon set to unveil a new iPad-like tablet on Wednesday, lots of folks assume that the company’s video offering will be tied to the new gadget as well.

Like other programming deals Amazon has signed with the likes of CBS and NBCUniversal, the Fox pact is for library shows the network no longer airs. Deals for “in-season” shows are exceptionally rare, and generally the only (legal) place you can find them online are on the networks’ own sites, as well as Hulu.

Amazon says the Fox deal brings its streaming library up to 11,000 titles; Netflix offers around 20,000. (Disclosure: News Corp. owns Fox, as well as this site).

UPDATE: An Amazon press release says the deal includes old Fox movies as well, like “Office Space,” “Speed” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

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