Amazon Snatches Up SpongeBob and Other Popular Kids’ Shows

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Netflix’s loss is Amazon’s gain — although it didn’t come cheap.

The latter company is paying more than $200 million to Viacom for a license to stream popular shows, including “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Dora the Explorer,” and “Blue’s Clues,” Reuters says.

That’s a record amount from Amazon for a streaming deal, it adds.

The shows appear to be available already for Amazon Prime customers, who pay $79 a year for free two-day shipping and streaming access to thousands of shows and movies. The Viacom deal includes about 4,000 episodes, Reuters says.

Amazon will have access to the shows for at least two years, and get more Viacom content than rival Netflix’s recently lapsed deal with the company, Reuters says.

It may be worth the money, since Amazon vice president Bill Carr told Reuters that childrens’ programming is among the most-watched on the service. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings admitted to CNBC that losing the Nickelodeon shows could hurt.

But it’s not like Netflix is out of content for kids. In March, Netflix picked up a lot of popular Cartoon Network shows. The company also scored a big deal with Disney a few months ago, though most of that won’t kick in until 2016.

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