Amazon reaches accord with NBC Universal

Amazon announced Thursday that it had reached an agreement with NBC Universal to allow its members to view certain movies from Universal Pictures on-line through its movie streaming service. According to the on-line retail giant, Oscar-winning movies such as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Gosford Park" and "Elizabeth" as well as other favorites like "Notting Hill" and "Billy Elliot" are part of the pact. The movies will be available to Amazon Prime members through its streaming service Prime Instant Video. Amazon Prime is a membership program that gives subscribers discounts on shipping for a 79 U.S. dollar annual fee. In February, Amazon said it would offer Prime customers unlimited access to an on-line video library. Last Wednesday, Amazon announced an accord with CBS that expanded the video library to more than 8,000 movies and TV shows. It said Thursday that the NBC deal will bring the number to more than 9,000. With the CBS, NBC Universal deals, Amazon steps up its rivalry against other movie streaming services, especially Netflix, a popular on-line and mail-order movie rental company which just boosted prices by 60 percent for some subscribers. Analysts said Amazon is trying to make the pitch to those customers who are disappointed with Netflix. In a second-quarter earnings letter to investors distributed on Monday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said Netflix had more than 24.6 million subscribers in the U.S. at the end of June and vastly more streaming content than its competitors. "We haven't detected an impact on our business from Amazon Prime," he noted.