Amazon Bows ABC Family Content on DVD and SVOD

20 Mar, 2012 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Amazon March 20 said it signed a license agreement with Disney-owned ABC Family to launch select television series and movie titles on DVD and subscription video-on-demand for the first time.

Beginning today, Amazon will make available “The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Volume Seven” on its CreateSpace DVD service, in addition to previous seasons on the Prime SVOD () platform. Additional programs and movies were not disclosed.

CreateSpace () allows users to order individual DVD (no Blu-ray) titles on demand shipped directly to their home. The service enables content holders to sell physical media titles to the public without incurring costly production run charges.

CreateSpace also has license agreements with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It should be noted that on-demand DVDs typically are not accepted for trade-in at video stores or buy-sell-trade outlets.

The three-disc set of “American Teenager” features 13 episodes of the first half of the series’ fourth season. The show, which stars Shailene Woodley (Golden Globe-nominated for The Descendants), Molly Ringwald and Daren Kagasoff, bows its fifth season March 26 on ABC Family.

“We’re always working to offer our customers more great content, and 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager' is another example of that,” said Brad Beale, director of digital video content at Amazon.

The addition of ABC Family programming brings to 15,000 the number of movies and TV shows available on Amazon Prime, the ecommerce behemoth’s $79 annual membership program that affords users free and discounted shipping on select purchases. Prime is among a growing platform of SVOD services (including Comcast's Xfinty Streampix and Google) attempting to bridge the gap with market leader Netflix.

 

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