Amazon inks streaming rights to "BrainDead," other shows
Illustrating the mounting competition among streaming services for content, Amazon (AMZN) is extending a summer romance with network television.
The online retailer and CBS (CBS), the parent of CBSNews.com, on Thursday announced an agreement that gives Amazon exclusive rights to stream first-run television shows four days after their network broadcast.
The three-year accord starts next summer with "Braindead," a series set on Capitol Hill in which the brains of lawmakers and their staff have been consumed by aliens, the two companies said in a statement.
Amazon had the exclusive streaming rights to CBS' recent summer shows "Under the Dome" and "Extant," with the pact helping CBS cover the overhead of developing a series for the summer months.
Another way Amazon is competing on the streaming front is to play hardball with major competitors. Separately on Thursday, the retailer said it will stop allowing its third-party vendors to sell Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) video-streaming devices, according to The Associated Press.
Amazon said it wants to ensure that any online video gear sold on its site is compatible with its streaming service, which the company said is a key part of its Prime membership program.
"It's important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion," a company spokesperson emailed.
Amazon will continue to sell streaming devices that are compatible with Prime Video, including Roku, Xbox, PlayStation and Amazon's own Fire TV devices. But Apple TV and Google's Chromecast will be banned.