CBS Licenses 2,000 TV Episodes To Amazon Streaming Service

Look out Netflix…The deal brings old series including Star Trek, Frasier, and Cheers to Amazon Prime, increasing its library of streamable movies and TV shows to 8,000. Although the companies aren’t talking about the terms, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker says it’s a “big positive” for CBS. Unlike the two-year deal that CBS cut with Netflix in February, she says the arrangement with Amazon probably just runs for 18 months and would include a payment for each subscriber as well an upfront fee. “These differences make a lot of sense to us given that Amazon is still in a ‘build-out’ phase when it comes to its streaming TV offering,” Ryvicker says in a report. The bottom line: She expects CBS to see $100M in revenue, most of it early in 2012.

Here’s the release about CBS’ deal with Amazon:

NEW YORK and SEATTLE – July 20, 2011 — CBS Corporation [NYSE: CBS.A and CBS] and Amazon.com [NASDAQ: AMZN] today announced a non-exclusive licensing agreement that will enable Amazon customers to stream television shows from CBS’s vast library. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

 Amazon Prime customers will be able to instantly watch thousands of episodes from the CBS library at no additional cost to their membership. With the deal, Amazon will add 2,000 episodes to grow the total number of Prime instant videos to more than 8,000 movies and television shows, and offer full seasons for 18 popular television series, including “The Tudors,” “Numb3rs,” “Medium,” the complete “Star Trek” franchise, “Frasier” and “Cheers.” Starting this summer, dozens of CBS shows will also become available to Amazon Instant Video customers.

 “Our new deal with CBS makes Amazon Prime even better for customers,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com CEO. “We’re excited to add thousands of popular CBS programs to our already great selection, all of which stream at no additional cost to Amazon Prime members.”

“Amazon has created one of the most popular consumer marketplaces in the world, and we are very pleased to make these titles available to their Instant Video and Prime customers,” said Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. “This new agreement represents another meaningful way for us to realize incremental value for CBS’s content.”

Amazon Instant Video is a streaming video service that offers customers more than 90,000 movies and television shows available to purchase or rent, and with this CBS content included, will offer more than 6,000 movies and television shows included at no additional cost with an Amazon Prime membership. Customers can instantly watch movies and television shows from Amazon on a Mac, PC or directly on television with any of the 300 compatible devices.