Fringe and The West Wing, are two television programs that share common thread of incredulity (Fringe is sci-fi, The West Wing is about collaborative politics). Now they have something else in common: they're both part of the Amazon Prime instant video catalog.
Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) made this happen by reaching a licensing deal with Warner Bros.' domestic television distribution arm that makes those two programs available on prime instant video exclusively to Amazon Prime members and Kindle Fire customers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Amazon Prime, considered by some to be either the next great thing after Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) or the next great competitor to Netflix, costs $79 a year for members who, in addition to videos, get free two-day shipping on millions of other items available on Amazon.com. It's an offer that can't be matched by Netflix.
Additionally, the service offers unlimited instant streaming of more than 18,000 movies and TV shows—now including Fringe and The West Wing—and the ability to borrow tens of thousands of books for free with no due dates from a Kindle device.
While the service obviously encourages the use of Kindles and Kindle Fires, Prime customers can also access the instant video on any compatible device, including Roku, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Xbox 360 and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Playstation.
The deal with Warner Bros. joins those Amazon has already struck with NBCUniversal Domestic TV distribution and CBS.
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