Amazon Grabs Big Name Movies

Although Netflix lost its digital distribution rights with Sony and Disney, they had a better lineup of newer blockbuster movies than Amazon. That is about to change.

If you watch movies from Amazon’s “Prime Instant Video” service, you can now watch the same blockbuster movies they have on Netflix. Amazon announced on Tuesday that they just signed “multi-year licensing agreement” with the movie distributor, Equix,  a pay-movie channel that supplies films from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM. This is just a few days after Netflix exclusive contract with Equix expired. Right now, hit movies like “The Avengers,” “Iron Man 2,” “The Hunger Games,” “Super 8,” “Thor,” and “True Grit” are available to be watched on Amazon right now.

Even though Netfix exclusive contract with Equix has expired, they still have their hands on the same movies and will likely have streaming rights till 2015. The contract that was just recently expired means that Netflix will not be the only company to have streaming rights to Equix’s library of hit movies; it does not mean that they lost their library. You will likely see more of Equix’s library on more services later on, like the Verizon/Redbox video set to launch in fall of 2012.

The addition of Equix’s library brings heavy competition with Netflix. For $79 ($39 for students/caregiver) a year, you get to not only instantly watch movies from Amazon’s video library, but also get free two-day shipping, Kindle book loan program, and other services from Amazon. Amazon is soon to announce new devices and services on Thursday. More information will be made public at that time.