Amazon Steals “Downtown” from Netflix

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has agreed to the streaming rights for “Downton Abbey,” an astronomically popular British television show that airs on PBS in the United States, according to the WSJ.

Although earlier seasons of “Downton” currently air on Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Amazon stated that their Prime Instant Video service will have exclusive rights to all “Downton” seasons later this year.

The deal is a striking blow for Netflix, which has seen increased competition from Amazon for months now. The season 3 premiere of “Downton”, aired last month, drew a reported 7.9 million viewers, quadrupling PBS’ average primetime viewership.

Netflix has taken recent strides in attempts to secure itself as a viable alternative to expensive cable providers, even going so far as to release its own show, “House of Cards.” However, going up against an Internet giant such as Amazon (and all its investable cash)…