The announcement comes as Amazon is also testing limits to the Prime service's free two-day shipping feature. 'We are proud to be the first and only online subscription streaming service that enables offline viewing - on vacation, in a car, at the beach, on a plane, wherever our Prime members want to watch they can, regardless of internet connection,' Michael Paull, Amazon's vice president of digital video, said in a statement. Until now, the most common way to watch shows offline has been to rent or buy individual downloadable episodes through Amazon or Apple's online stores.

Offline access to a streaming media library is common in the music world, but not for TV or movies. 'We're constantly working to establish and enhance these agreements so we can offer downloading across more of our full Prime Instant Video catalog.' 'Download availability depends on our agreements with content owners,' Amazon says. It won't work for everything in Amazon's streaming library, however, because the company needs permission from the makers of the shows and movies. It announced the new viewing mode on Tuesday morning and said it'll work right away for subscribers in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Austria.

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