Amazon announced this week the upcoming addition of more than 1,000 episodes of popular PBS television programming to its Amazon Prime and Amazon Instant Video services, which are available through the Amazon Instant Video Roku channel.
PBS titles to be added over the next several months will include NOVA, Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, and the Ken Burns series of documentaries featuring The Civil War, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, Baseball, Jazz and the acclaimed new series Prohibition, which premiered on PBS stations earlier this month. Amazon will also offer popular PBS news programs with day-after air availability from shows like Frontline and Washington Week. Beginning in early November, and for the first time ever on digital video, PBS will offer 200 episodes of The French Chef with the world renowned Julia Child.
All of these titles will be available at no extra charge to Amazon Prime members, who get unlimited, commercial-free, instant access to more than 12,000 movies and TV shows as part of their $79 annual membership fee. Roku users who are not Prime members, or who to watch movies and TV shows not available under the Prime membership program, will be able to purchase or rent the videos through the Amazon Instant Video service, which provides more than 100,000 titles that include new release movies, TV shows the day after they air, and contemporary and classic videos in SD and HD. All videos can be watched through the Amazon Instant Video channel on Roku.
