Advanced Television

Amazon adds OTT partners

December 9, 2015

Following advanced-television.com’s revelation that Amazon was set to add other OTT services to its Prime service in an effort to attract cord-cutters, it has launched the Streaming Partners Program, an over-the-top streaming subscription program for video providers that enables them to reach tens of millions of Prime members. With the Streaming Partners Program, video providers have access to a highly engaged streaming audience, and viewers have a more convenient way to manage their streaming subscriptions, suggests Amazon.

According to Amazon, the Streaming Partners Program offers many benefits for video providers. Amazon is responsible for:

  • Driving all subscriber acquisition
  • Making subscribing friction-free—credit cards are already on file
  • Handling all customer service
  • Managing all billing
  • Managing credit card expirations
  • Serving partners’ content through high-quality, reliable streaming infrastructure
  • Managing compatibility across hundreds of devices

Similarly, according to Amazon, the Streaming Partners Program offers many benefits for viewers, including:

  • Free trials on all subscriptions
  • Special Prime member pricing
  • Latest episodes available simultaneous with broadcast
  • Convenience of one account
  • One Watchlist across all subscriptions
  • Self-service cancellation of any subscription at anytime
  • IMDb X-Ray integration
  • Unified search and browse across subscriptions
  • Unified voice search and ASAP on Fire TV

“The way people watch TV is changing, and customers need an easier way to subscribe to and enjoy multiple streaming subscriptions,” said Michael Paull, Vice President of Digital Video at Amazon. “With the Streaming Partners Program, we’re making it easy for video providers to reach highly engaged Prime members, many of whom are already frequent streamers, and we’re making it easier for viewers to watch their favourite shows and channels.”

“We’re excited to work with Amazon to offer our streaming service featuring all of our award-winning original series, plus our exclusive sports, news-making documentaries and blockbuster movies, to millions of Prime users,” said David Nevins, President, Showtime Networks Inc. “By marrying SHOWTIME with the powerhouse retail capabilities of Amazon, we continue to greatly expand our footprint, making sure our service is available to new subscribers whenever and however they want to watch us.”

“STARZ is excited to offer subscriptions to our premium hit shows like ‘Outlander’ and ‘Power,’ as well as our thousands of movies, to Amazon Prime customers,” said Chris Albrecht, CEO of Starz said. “This is a terrific product for customers to conveniently navigate their entertainment options quickly, easily and anywhere.”

Initial launch partners include: SHOWTIME, STARZ, A+E Network (Lifetime Movie Club), AMC (Shudder and SundanceNow Doc Club), Gaia, RLJ Entertainment (Acorn TV, Urban Movie Channel, Acacia TV), DramaFever (DramaFever Instant), Tribeca Short List, Cinedigm (Dove Channel, Docurama, CONtv), Smithsonian (Smithsonian Earth), IndieFlix (IndieFlix Shorts), Curiosity Stream, Qello, FlixFling (Cinefest, Nature Vision, Warriors and Gangsters, Dox, Monsters and Nightmares), BroadbandTV (Hooplakidz Plus), DEFY Media (ScreenJunkies Plus), Gravitas (Film Forum, Daring Docs, Fear Factory), and Ring TV Boxing.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Content, OTT, OTT, Premium, Rights, VOD