Amazon Instant hits 100,000 movies, TV shows
Still, the e-commerce heavyweight will have a long way to go to match, or even approach, Netflix's popularity in the U.S.
Amazon's Instant Video service has reached an important milestone.
The e-commerce giant says it now has 100,000 movies and television shows available to customers to buy or rent. The video content, which can be viewed on more than 300 devices, including PCs, Blu-ray players, and televisions, has a starting price of $3.99 per video, depending on what customers choose to watch.
"The 100,000 titles on Amazon Instant Video range from new hit blockbusters to old favorites, with more than 15,000 of those titles available in HD, and popular TV shows available the day after they first air," the company said in a statement.
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In addition, Amazon announced that it now offers over 9,000 movies and television shows for unlimited streaming to its Prime customers, who pay $79 per year for free two-day shipping on products they buy on the company's site.
Amazon launched its streaming service in February. At the time, the company said that it was offering 5,000 movies to customers, and planned on bringing more content to the service over time.
But even though it has nearly doubled its streaming library, the company is still far behind the leader in streaming video, Netflix, which claims to have "tens of thousands" of movies and television shows.
However, at $79 annually, Amazon is offering a service that's markedly cheaper than Netflix's streaming-only plan, which costs $7.99 per month.
Amazon will have a long way to go to match, or even approach, Netflix's popularity in the U.S. In May, Sandvine reported that Netflix accounted for 30 percent of all downstream traffic during peak periods in the U.S. The company is also adding customers at a rapid clip: at last count, it had 25 million customers.
Amazon's latest announcement comes just two months after the retailer said that it added 1,000 more movies and television shows to its streaming service.