Netflix Signs DreamWorks Animation, Amazon Signs Fox For Streaming. Battle On!
Just today I was wondering when the fuck Fringe was going to get up on the Netflix tip so I could finally watch it. Get the discs? Pshaw! I’m lazy. Well it may be going up soon, just on Amazon’s streaming service. Today Amazon and Netflix both announced huge streaming signings.
Slashfilm:
The Netflix-DreamWorks partnership is being touted by the two companies as the first time a major studio has chosen Web streaming over pay TV, signaling an expectation that online video will continue to grow in the near future. DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg called it a “game-changing deal” in line with the “long-term road map of where the industry is headed.” Netflix executive Ted Srandos agreed. “You’re seeing power moving back into the hands of content creators,” he said. “When a company like DreamWorks ends a long-running pay TV deal – when a new buyer in the space steps up – that’s a really interesting landscape shift.”
The DreamWorks catalog – which will include new movies like the upcoming The Croodsand Turbo, plus as older ones like Kung Fu Panda and Megamind – will be available for streaming on Netflix starting in 2013. Neither the value nor the length of the Netflix-DreamWorks pact has been revealed, though the New York Times estimates a worth of about $30 million per picture to DreamWorks. The deal replaces an earlier, less profitable one that DreamWorks had with HBO, as HBO agreed to end their deal with the studio two years early. It also allows DreamWorks to continue selling digital downloads; DreamWorks’ previous deal with HBO required that the studio suspend digital sales for a period to allow the network exclusive access.
[cont]Meanwhile, Amazon continues to make inroads into the streaming market with its brand new Fox deal. The agreement brings Amazon’s total catalog of titles to about 11,000, and includes such shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Arrested Development, and films like Office Space and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. (For comparison, Netflix has roughly 20,000 titles according to All Things D). Netflix will continue streaming the Fox shows and movies it already has, but Amazon will have exclusive access to a few titles, including the much-loved series The Wonder Years.
Thoughts? Anyone actually use Amazon’s streaming service?