Amazon Partners With EPIX, Brings 3,000 More Titles To Prime Instant Video

Amazon’s steady growth in building up its Amazon Prime Instant Video collection continues today with yet another deal with a content provider: this time, EPIX, a newer, premium channel with access to a selection of movies, comedy, music and sports events. Amazon says that the deal means “thousands” of new titles will join its video collection, including those from EPIX’s studio partners, Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, and Lionsgate – some of which Amazon already has independent agreements with already, such as the Paramount deal announced this May.

According to the company, EPIX’s deal will more than double the number of titles available in Prime Instant Video since the Kindle Fire was introduced last September. However, in terms of where the library was in last month, it’s a more standard increase.

When Amazon announced a similar agreement with ESPN in August, the total number of movies and TV shows available was at 22,000. Today, following the EPIX deal, it’s 25,000. The Instant Video collection, to be clear, is a subset of Amazon’s video library, which includes over 120,000 titles available for streaming, rent or purchase. These titles can be played on Amazon’s Kindle Fire, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Roku, iPad  and other devices, including desktop and laptop computers.

EPIX specifically brings some popular new releases, including The Avengers, Iron Man 2, The Hunger Games, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Thor and Rango as well as popular favorites such as Kick Ass, Paranormal Activity 2, True Grit, The Lincoln Lawyer, and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. And it will bring original programming such as comedy specials and concerts like Kevin Smith: Burn in Hell and Usher: Live from London.

Notably, these are movies which Amazon has gained following the expiration of Netflix’s exclusive deal with Epix, a joint venture between Viacom subdivision Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate. While Netflix will have non-exclusive Epix content for another year, it may be impacted by the appearance of some of these titles on Amazon and elsewhere, as consumers’ choice in streaming service providers broadens.

This news comes ahead of a press conference Amazon is holding this week in Los Angeles, where it’s expected the retailer will announce new versions of its Kindle tablets.