If you do a lot of shopping on Amazon.com, you've no doubt come across the site's $79 per year "Prime" membership option.

The basic idea is that for $79, you get free two-day shipping on just about everything sold directly by Amazon . And the company has now decided to throw in free video streaming from its Amazon Instant Video service to its "Prime" membership.

Amazon's Prime-eligible free video streaming comes right as competition between streaming video service is heating up. Netflix currently offers an $8-per-month unlimited streaming plan.

Currently there are 1,669 movies and 484 TV shows for free streaming, which can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=162616...rime_benefit=1