• by Wayne Friedman , June 4, 2013

Viacom is expanding a wide-ranging digital video deal with Amazon -- just weeks after ending one with Amazon competitor Netflix.

For Amazon's Prime Instant Video service, Viacom will commit a broad selection of TV shows from Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., MTV and Comedy Central under a multi-year deal. It will allow viewers to watch on a variety of devices including iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire and Roku, among them.

Early on, Viacom executives took some heat from TV business analysts, suggesting that dramatically lower TV viewership on Nickelodeon was due to deals on subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services like Netflix -- something that Viacom executives dismissed. Amazon is also an SVOD-type of service.

In April, Netflix executives said it would allow the Viacom deal to expire to “focus on exclusive and curated content” in an attempt to do fewer nonexclusive "bulk content deals.”

Shows for Amazon's Prime Instant Video will include Nickelodeon's 'Bubble Guppies," "The Backyardigans," "Team Umizoomi," "Blue’s Clues" and "Victorious," along with MTV and Comedy Central shows like "Awkward," "Tosh.0" and "Workaholics."

“Kids' shows are one of the most watched TV genres on Prime Instant Video,” stated Bill Carr, vice president of digital video and music for Amazon. “This expanded deal will now bring customers the largest subscription selection of Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. TV shows online, anywhere."

Philippe Dauman, president/chief executive officer of Viacom, added: “This innovative agreement will provide Prime members with access to even more of our best programming from our major television brands, including many digital video subscription streaming exclusives."

Prime Instant Video has more than 41,000 movies and TV episodes .