Shares of online video company Netflix are taking a battering Tuesday, lately down 7 percent at $55, on news that rival Amazon.com has inked a distribution deal with Viacom’s Epix premium cable network.
The Epix deal with Amazon comes days after Netflix’s exclusive deal with Epix expired, and it “gives Amazon Prime members a lot less reason to also have a Netflix subscription," R. J. Hottovy, an analyst with Morningstar, said of the Amazon-Epix deal.
The Amazon deal with Epix doubles the number of movies in Amazon’s library, and demonstrates the online retailer’s determination to take on the likes of Netflix and Apple’s iTunes store.
The Epix agreement gives Amazon Prime Instant Video subscribers access to popular new release movies such as The Avengers, Iron Man 2, and The Hunger Games, Amazon said.
Shares of Amazon were lately down 1 percent at $245.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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