Amazon Prime Instant Video Announces Premiere of Wanna-be Entrepreneur Original Comedy 'Betas'

LONDON, March 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Brand new series from Amazon Studios to premiere on Prime Instant Video in the UK on 14^th March

Technology start-up comedy Betas was commissioned following viewer feedback from pilot released in April 2013

Prime members will be able to enjoy all 11 episodes for free through Prime Instant Video alongside 15,000 popular movies and TV episodes

Prime Instant Video, the UK's largest subscription streaming service, has today announced that the brand new original comedy series Betas will premiere on the movie and TV streaming service in the UK on 14^th March, 2014.

As part of Amazon's increasing investment in exclusive programming, Betas is an entirely new series from Amazon Studios - the original film and TV production arm of Amazon.com - and follows its first original series, the critically acclaimed political satire Alpha House, which premiered on Prime Instant Video in the UK in February.

Both shows were greenlit for full season production following viewer feedback on pilot episodes, which premiered in the UK and US in April 2013.

All 11 episodes of the first season - full of apps, coding and debauchery - will be available for Amazon Prime members to stream through the new Prime Instant Video service in the UK at once and in full high-definition from 14^th March 2014.

"Betas was an incredibly popular pilot when it was released in the UK last April and the show has already gone on to be a huge hit in the US. It's punchy, funny and captures the fast-moving world of tech-startups in a comical and entertaining way" said Helen Cowley, Head of Programming at Amazon Instant Video, UK. "The humour is very similar to The Inbetweeners and Big Bang Theory… but at the same time in a class of its own. Fans of great comedy should definitely take a look. We think they'll love it."

Starring Golden Globe-nominee Ed Begley Jr (Arrested Development, St. Elsewhere), Joe Dinicol, Karan Soni, Jon Daly and Charlie Saxton, the series follows four wanna-be entrepreneurs in the land of Silicon Valley start-ups as they develop their new dating and social app "BRB", whilst desperately trying to win over investors and spread the word about the app they think will change the face of social media.

Written by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard, Betas sees Michael Lehmann direct and produce the show along with Executive Producers and Emmy Award winners Alan Freedland and Alan Cohen, and Academy Award nominee Michael London.

Following its earlier launch in the US, Betas has been met with a very positive reception by critics, with the New York Times saying it is "…clever, sharply observed…" and Variety calling the first season "a pretty impressive debut".

For more information about Amazon Prime, visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/prime.  For more information about Prime Instant Video, visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/primevideo.

-Notes to Editors-

About Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios launched in 2010 as a new way to develop feature films and episodic series-one that's open to great ideas from creators and audiences around the world. Anyone can upload a script and will then be notified within 45 days if that script is optioned. Amazon Studios will read and review all submissions and those who choose to make their projects public will also receive feedback from the Amazon Studios community.

Most recently, Amazon Studios debuted its first two comedy series, Alpha House and Betas. The company will release its first three kids series, Annebots, Creative Galaxy and Tumbleaf this year.

In addition, eleven new pilots are currently available to watch, rate and review, including kids' pilots-Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street, Grid Smasher, The Maker Shack Agency and Wishenpoof!, and adult comedy and drama pilots-The After, Bosch, Mozart in the Jungle, The Rebels and Transparent. These pilots are available exclusively on Amazon Instant Video.

Since launch, more than 18,000 movie scripts and 4,000 series projects have been submitted to Amazon Studios. Amazon Studios continues to invite series creators to upload their proposals for comedy and children's programming at http://studios.amazon.com/getting-started/series or submit them privately via Amazon Studios.

Comprehensive cast and crew information, including bios and filmographies, is available on Amazon's IMDb (http://www.imdb.com), the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.

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Forward-Looking Statements

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Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business.
Amazon.co.uk is a trading name for Amazon EU S.a.r.l, Amazon Services Europe S.a.r.l and Amazon Media EU S.a.r.l. All three are wholly owned subsidiaries of global online retailer Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), located in Seattle, Washington. Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including http://www.amazon.com, http://www.amazon.co.uk, http://www.amazon.de, http://www.amazon.co.jp, http://www.amazon.fr, http://www.amazon.ca, http://www.amazon.cn, http://www.amazon.it, and http://www.amazon.es. As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

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