In a move of brilliance, Amazon has inked a deal with MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) that will allow it to serve up tons of old MGM movies and TV shows to customers of Amazon Prime. As the streaming wars heat up, content is going to once again be king, and Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon are the key players.
It makes a lot of sense for Amazon to focus on the back catalog of movies and TV shows – as Hollywood continues to produce such garbage as ‘Battleship‘, consumers are going to start yearning to watch movies and TV shows ‘from before it all started sucking’. Netflix has been garnering some of this content – you can now watch all of the episodes of Saved by the Bell and The Wonder Years, and Hulu Plus is there, too, picking up greats such as every episode of Saturday Night Live (including the earlier years, before it started sucking).
There are still numerous ‘classics’ that you can’t find anywhere – Growing Pains, CHiPs, I Dream of Jeannie, Family Matters, and Full House, to name a few. These were the types of TV shows that I want to watch with my daughter as she grows up, not Game of Thrones. If Amazon (or Netflix, or Hulu, I really don’t care, to be honest) can get an exclusive license for some of this content, they’ll gain a significant advantage. I can guarantee you the first company to license Friends is going to make a KILLING in new subscriptions from middle-aged women who grew up with Ross and Monica and the gang.
What’s the one show you would LOVE to find available to stream?
Ricky Cadden 