Amazon Prime Instant Video – the new amalgamation of the retail giant’s postage, video streaming and books services – is branching out to children’s TV with animated shows Tumble Leaf, Creative Galaxy debuting on 23 May and 27 June respectively and the live-action Annedroid premiering on 25 July.

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Tumble Leaf and Creative Galaxy are both aimed at pre-school children, while Annendroid is hoping to attract a 4-7-year-old audience. Of course, the real marketing push here is towards the children, but the people out of pocket will be the parents paying for the service – HBO for them, sparkly animations for the kids. 

"We’re working with some of the most renowned creators in the business to introduce programming that promotes life-long learning through play," said Amazon Studios' head of kids programming Tara Sorensen, in a statement. "A huge part of our customer base is families and kids. We decided to start with preschool programming," said Sorensen, who also revealed plans for shows for 6-11 year-old children too. "Kids today are not looking up to the Justin Biebers and Miley Cyruses, they might have different role models, so how can we create at the core smart characters that kids will want to emulate?" she asked. 

Amazon continue to do battle with Netflix, who changed the original content game forever with House of Cards. The retail behemoth did announce a remarkable coup recently, though, confirming a landmark deal with the hugely reputable cable service HBO, the home of shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Game of Thrones and Girls.

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But streaming children’s shows isn’t the only way Amazon can attract and interact with the younger generation with a view to making their parents pay. Sorensen and Amazon Studios director Roy Price hinted at plans to develop apps and other interactive, educational content based on the shows. "It’s clearly an interesting area we’re looking into. We’d like to figure out something along those lines, whether it’s second-screen or the primary thing we should take advantage of.”