Amazon Prime adds Hannibal, Smash, and more to lineup

Amazon Prime selection gets a boost with expanded NBCUniversal agreement

We all have guilty pleasure shows, like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, and Swamp People. Such shows are decidedly uncool and a total waste of headspace—but everybody watches them because they're awesome. My guilty pleasure is even lamer—so lame, in fact, that I only watch it when I’m home alone because I think my husband would never be able to look me in the eye again. My guilty pleasure show is Grimm. I know! It’s so lame! It’s not even a good lame—it’s a bad lame!

But OMG—now I can watch it whenever I want on Amazon Prime!

Amazon announced Thursday that it has expanded its content licensing agreement with NBCUniversal to add a bunch of new shows, including—naturally—Grimm, USA Network’s legal drama Suits and spy thriller Covert Affairs, NBC’s new hit Hannibal, and Syfy’s new futuristic sci-fi/drama Defiance. Other shows added to the lineup include the Golden Globe nominated hit Smash, as well as Syfy dramas Alphas, Eureka, and Warehouse 13.

Additionally, Amazon Prime is bringing several new kid shows to its selection, including Curious George and Land Before Time, which will both be available via Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, the kids’ content service for Kindle Fire.

“We listen carefully to our customers to find out which TV shows and movies they find the most entertaining,” said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon, in a statement. “Our expanded agreement with NBCUniversal gives Prime members access to even more exclusive content that they can stream instantly, at no additional cost. Compelling shows like Covert Affairs, Defiance, Grimm, Hannibal, and Suits are big wins for our customers and we look forward to adding more titles soon.”

The content wars continue to heat up as Internet TV becomes more and more of a reality. Amazon recently followed Netflix in taking the plunge into the original content pool, but unlike Netflix, Amazon is asking viewers to vote on their favorite pilots.

Netflix, on the other hand, is coming out with some heavy hitting originals of its own, including the fan favorite House of Cards, and—of course—Arrested Development, which has been promoting its return to “TV” with a world tour of the Bluth Frozen Banana Stand. The banana stand started in London last week and made it to New York this week. As of yesterday, the banana stand was standing in front of Yankee Stadium, where fans waited in line (sometimes for hours) to get a free frozen chocolate covered banana.

BTIG analysts interviewed more than 400 people who waited in line for a frozen banana, and of those customers, fully 86% were Netflix subscribers. Of those who weren’t, 63% said they planned to subscribe to Netflix in order to access the new season of Arrested Development, will debut on Netflix on May 26.

Impressive. But, you know…it’s no Grimm. Weider Blutbads! Hexenbiester!

Image source: hollywoodreporter.com