Avengers, Hunger Games to Stream Free For Amazon Prime Users

Earlier today, Amazon announced a massive expansion to its Amazon Prime offering that will include free streaming of recent and new release hit movies including Marvel's The Avengers and The Hunger Games, among many others. "We are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the Prime Instant Video library for our customers. We have now more than doubled this selection of movies and TV episodes to over 25,000 titles in just under a year," said Bill Carr, Vice President of Video and Music at Amazon in a statement. "We are thrilled to be able to offer our customers such popular EPIX titles, many of which were just recently in theaters. We can tell from the data that our customers love watching movies on Prime Instant Video. We think customers will really enjoy watching new titles like The Avengers, Iron Man 2 and The Hunger Games on their Kindle Fire, PlayStation 3, Xbox, iPad or any of the other of the Amazon Instant Video compatible devices." The site is offering free, one-month trials to non-subscribers through their website, although you don't qualify for it you've tried Prime in the past. Customers who buy a Kindle Fire get their first month of Amazon Prime for free. In addition to the free streaming videos, the Amazon Prime service provides free standard or two-day shipping on most items, very much like what Barnes & Noble's membership benefits offer. "We are excited to be working with Amazon and to bring our compelling content to Amazon Prime and Kindle Fire customers," said Mark Greenberg, President and CEO of EPIX. "This partnership is yet another great example of EPIX's ability to broaden our reach through a digital platform, underscoring the incredible value of the EPIX content offering." UPDATE 9/4/12 at 4:19 p.m.: Ultra-new releases like the as-yet-unreleased Avengers movie are unlikely to launch day-and-date on Amazon Prime; EPIX has previously provided their digital streaming services exclusively to Netflix, and while that exclusivity is up, it seems unlikely they will change their existing policy of having a waiting period following the release of the DVD and Blu-ray, something that's structured into their contracts with almost every major studio.