Amazon now lets Prime members pay for premium network subscriptions like Showtime and Starz

Amazon has launched a new program that lets video providers sign up to distrubute their content to Amazon Prime subscribers.

For users, this means that you can now directly pay for and manage subscriptions to services like Showtime and Starz through Amazon’s platform, and to entice users to sign up, the company has struck deals for reduced cost access in some instances. Showtime, for example, usually costs around $11 each month, whereas it’s available to Prime members for $8.99 per month.

Amazon says users will get free trials on all subscription offers and the most recent episodes of shows will become available at the same time as they are broadcast on TV.

Initial partners include:

“SHOWTIME, STARZ, A+E Network (Lifetime Movie Club), AMC (Shudder and SundanceNow Doc Club), Gaia, RLJ Entertainment (Acorn TV, Urban Movie Channel, Acacia TV), DramaFever (DramaFever Instant), Tribeca Short List, Cinedigm (Dove Channel, Docurama, CONtv), Smithsonian (Smithsonian Earth), IndieFlix (IndieFlix Shorts), Curiosity Stream, Qello, FlixFling (Cinefest, Nature Vision, Warriors and Gangsters, Dox, Monsters and Nightmares), BroadbandTV (Hooplakidz Plus), DEFY Media (ScreenJunkies Plus), Gravitas (Film Forum, Daring Docs, Fear Factory), and Ring TV Boxing.”

Primarily, it’ll probably most appeal for its ability to let users with many different subscriptions manage them all from one place. It’s also pretty nice to have a single Watch List that integrates across all the services.

For Amazon, it’s just one more small hook to get you to sign up for a Prime account.

➤ Amazon Announces the Streaming Partners Program [Amazon press room]