Amazon Prime inks deal with MGM

The deal comes with a big boost of new titles to add to the Prime subscription collection

Amazon Prime has saved my life.  I repeat: SAVED. MY. LIFE.  Yes, I’m being hyperbolic.  Deal with it.  Being a sleep-deprived new parent means when I remind myself to pick up bibs and sippy cups on my next shopping trip, I invariably forget the bibs and/or the sippy cups, but I come home with a six-month supply of antibacterial hand soap and a bag of carrots.  It’s so wonderful to be able to go on Amazon, find bibs and/or sippy cups, and have them on my doorstep two days later for just one flat yearly rate of $79.  It’s more than paid for itself.  And on those Friday nights when the hubs and I really feel like chillaxing with some “Footloose,” we can get it without having to pay extra, saving us the embarrassment of publicly renting “Footloose.” 

Now Amazon Prime is getting a bevy of new titles to add to its arsenal.  The company announced Tuesday that it has inked a deal with MGM that will add some 1,000 new movie and TV titles to the Prime collection, including Rain Man, The Terminator, Dances With Wolves, The Silence of the Lambs, and more.  The new additions brings Prime’s collection to 18,000 titles.

The new deal follows on the heels of Amazon’s May deal with Paramount Pictures.  And in March, the e-commerce giant signed with Discovery to add 3,000 new titles to Prime--making it the single biggest content addition to Prime's stash since the subscription video service was launched.

Amazon Prime Instant Video has been growing at a pretty quick clip.  Just last September, the digital movie subscription service had 11,000 titles, which means it has added 7,000 new titles in the last nine months—several thousand of which just rolled in over the last three months.  Along with MGM, Paramount Pictures, and Discovery, Amazon Prime also offers TV and movie titles from Fox, NBCUniversal, and CBS.

Always reticent to reveal sales numbers, Amazon won’t reveal how many Prime subscribers it actually has, other than to say it’s in the “millions.”

Amazon added a real kick to its Instant Video service last month when it announced that its streaming video is now available to watch on Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

But Amazon Prime still has Netflix to contend with.  Last fall, Netflix expanded overseas to the UK and Ireland and signed a multi-year agreement with MGM to stream titles like Capote, Fargo, and The Usual Suspects to British and Irish Netflix subscribers.