Dora has found a new casa at Amazon.
Amazon this morning announced a streaming deal with Viacom Networks that brings a broad selection of exclusive children’s programming to the Amazon Prime Instant Video service, following the expiration of Netflix’s deal with Viacom. Shows included in the deal include popular kids programming such as Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, SpongeBob SquarePants and Blue’s Clues.
The Seattle company says the Viacom deal gives it exclusive streaming rights to selected television shows. Also included are programs from MTV and Comedy Central, including Awkward, Tosh.0 and Workaholics.
The announcement comes just days after the end of Netflix’s deal with Viacom for many of the same shows.
“As we continue to focus on exclusive and curated content, our willingness to pay for non-exclusive, bulk content deals declines,” said Netflix at the time in a letter to shareholders. “At the end of May we’ll be allowing our broad Viacom Networks deal for Nickelodeon, BET, and MTV content to expire. We are in discussions with them about licensing particular shows but have yet to conclude a deal.”
Amazon Prime Instant Video is available as part of Amazon’s $79/year Amazon Prime subscription service, which also includes free two-day shipping and Kindle book rentals. Amazon also sells and rents a la carte movies and TV shows via the larger Amazon Instant Video service.
Netflix dominates the streaming media world, but Hulu and Amazon have been making small gains in viewership, according to new data released this morning by the NPD Group market research firm.
