Amazon Prime Video to Pick Up Universal Hits
Amazon Prime Video and IMDb TV have this week reached an agreement with Universal Films to license blockbusters after their Peacock streaming run ends. This multi-year agreement will give them access to blockbusters like F9 and Jurassic World. BLAKE & WANG P.A entertainment lawyer Los Angeles takes a look.
We’ve already seen Universal outline the first part of its planned pipeline for its content. This involves moving theatrical titles to Peacock within the first 4 months of opening, following an 18-month window to divide between Peacock and other partners. With the new info about licensing with Amazon, it’s clear the plan is for the first 4 months to go to Peacock exclusively, while the following 10 months will be allocated to IMDB and Prime exclusively. Presumably, films will return for their final 4 months run to Peacock.
It’s an unusual arrangement but will prove more lucrative for Universal in the long run than merely hogging content to Peacock alone. As of 2022, this will give Prime and co access to Universal’s live-action film catalog, as well as give IMDb TV the AVOD and SVOD rights to popular titles- including Shrek 2.
Their talk to date on the deal focuses on offering content diversification and using their distribution strategy to monetize an (admittedly powerful) move library across multiple services while offering viewer choice. Prime, of course, is very happy with the deal, which will be offered at no extra cost to their members.
It’s an interesting evolution in content consumption, as well as one of the first solid streamer partnerships we’ve seen come out of the new digital streaming era of video. It will be more than interesting to see how things develop from here. BLAKE & WANG P.A will, as always, keep you informed along the way.
Brandon Blake
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