Amazon isn't going to sit on the sidelines as Netflix and Hulu become the two dominant video streaming services offering original content. As such, the company today announced it has signed deals to bring five new shows to production as exclusives for its Instant Video platform.
Among the new shows are two comedies, "Alpha House" and "Betas", as well as three children's shows called "Annebots," "Creative Galaxy," and "Tumbleaf". Each show will air exclusively on Amazon's video service at the end of this year and early next year.
The shows in question were picked up from a slew of pilots streamed for free back in April as the firm's production arm, Amazon Studios, sought votes from viewers to decide which ones deserved a full season.
"Alpha House" is a political comedy starring John Goodman about four senators turned unlikely roommates. "Betas" is a comedy about entrepreneurs trying to make it in the world of technology. "Annebots" is about a kid scientist, "Creative Galaxy" follows an alien artist, and "Tumbleaf" is about a fox searching for adventure.
Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios, claims that this is just the beginning of a larger initiative to bring original content to market. "The success of this first set of pilots has given us the push to try this approach with even more shows – this is just the beginning," he said in a press release.
Amazon Studios launched in 2010 and since then 15,000 movie scripts and 3,600 series pilots have made their way through the door. Currently, the studio has 24 movies being developed or tested with audiences, though the five series in line for production today make up the first concrete announcement from the company.
Netflix has only just recently launched "Arrested Development" and "House of Cards" as exclusives to its service. The two have definitely attested that new shows on a streaming service can be very popular with users, and as long as the content is good, it seems likely that Amazon would see similar results.