Amazon Studios to produce "Alpha House," "Betas," 3 children's shows

Amazon says it will start production on five news shows to air later this year and early next year on its video streaming service.

The two comedies and three children's shows werechosen from 14 pilots previously aired on Amazon's Prime Instant Video service. They're intended to help Amazon better compete with Netflix, which already produces a handful of shows including "Arrested Development."

"We are thrilled at the enthusiastic customer response to our first original pilots," said Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios. "We built Amazon Studios so that customers could help decide which stories would make the very best movies and TV shows. It's exciting to see the process in motion, doing exactly what we set out to do. The success of this first set of pilots has given us the push to try this approach with even more shows -- this is just the beginning."

The comedies include "Alpha House," created by Academy Award nominee and Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Trudeau and starring John Goodman. It's about four senators who rent a house together in Washington. "Betas" follows four friends and their attempt to strike it rich with a new mobile social networking app.

The trio of kids shows includes "Annebots," which centers on a young scientist and her robot helpers, "Creative Galaxy" an animated series and "Tumbleaf," which is aimed at preschoolers.