|
By Jacqui Cheng
Netflix has officially closed a deal with premium cable channel Epix that will give Netflix exclusive online streaming rights to films from Viacom, MGM, and Lionsgate. The movies won't show up on Netflix until 90 days after they have premiered on Epix, but it's better than the years it usually takes, and it adds some serious mojo to the service's sometimes-anemic Watch Instantly library.
Epix itself has a unique past compared to other premium cable channels. In 2009, Lionsgate, MGM, and Viacom teamed up to show their own recent films in HD before DVD release (the "pay TV window," so to speak). Epix also created its own online, on-demand service that offered HD streams of the same films, also before DVD release.
Emil Rensing, chief digital office at Epix, told Ars last year that Epix's online service differed from Netflix because the latter didn't have access to the same super-recent hit titles, but that has now changed. The deal allows the studios behind Epix to expand their audience to a wider selection of Internet-savvy users while still controlling distribution, and keeping its own subscribers as top priority for the first 90 days of release.
Of course, the partnership won't be exclusive forever—the two companies acknowledged that it is a multiyear agreement, and the Los Angeles Times claims it's five years based on its talks with insiders. Instead, Netflix will likely just be the first of several partners after the initial exclusivity agreement is over, as indirectly acknowledged by Epix president Mark Greenberg: "Netflix is an incredibly popular service and we welcome them as our newest distribution partner. We are pleased to be able to continue our mission of bringing consumers the movies where they want to watch them, while satisfying the differing needs of cable, telco and satellite operators," Greenberg said in a statement.
The Epix deal comes only a month after Netflix signed a similar streaming agreement with Relativity Media. Instead of waiting years to stream certain Hollywood films, the company now has access to Relativity's new releases during the pay TV window—slightly earlier than Epix's films thanks to the 90-day delay.
Both of these deals go a long way toward beefing up Netflix's streaming selection, even if other companies are working to delay the arrival of films on Netflix. Warner Bros., for example, signed an agreement with Netflix that will give the company continued access to DVDs, but only after those DVDs have been on store shelves for a month. Considering that Netflix's streaming subscribers typically rent fewer DVDs than everyone else and the streaming audience is continually growing, it seems like a good idea to start catering to those users sooner rather than later.
_________________
Those that know, don't tell. And those that tell, don't know.
So say what you mean, and mean what you say.
And if its ain't broke, don't fix it.
|
