SACHA BARON COHEN BANNED FROM OSCARS: EXCLUSIVE 
Cassian Elwes And Mark Burg Start Evolution Independent To … 
Simon Cowell On Search For New ‘X Factor’ Hosts … 
J.J. Abrams And Paramount Extend First-Look Deal Through … 
‘Spartacus’ Alum Jai Courtney Lands Coveted … 
BREAKING: SAG Anti-Merger Members File Lawsuit Against … 
Disney Taps Edgar Wright To Helm Johnny Depp In ‘The … 
IMAX Names Former Paramount Exec Andrew Cripps President Of … 
Conan O’Brien’s TBS Late-Night Talk Show … 
Paramount President Of Animation David Stainton Resigns 
Oscar Countdown: Sherak On Kodak Theatre’s New Name, … 
Costumers Designers Guild Awards: ‘Dragon … 
Oscars Scoop: George Clooney’s & Melissa … 
CAA Signs ‘The Help’s Tate Taylor 
UPDATED: 2012 Oscar Party Roundup 
NBC Brings Back ‘Community’, Schedules … 
Weinstein To Take On MPAA ‘Bully’ Rating 
TOLDJA! Michael Fassbender Commits To Ridley Scott-Directed … 
Charlie Sheen Resumes ‘Two & Half Men’ … 
Comcast Launches Xfinity Streaming Service For Older 
Sarah Palin Doc ‘The Undefeated’ Finds TV Home … 
2ND UPDATE: I’ve just learned that Relativity Media will be in the distribution business sooner rather than later as it attempts to become a mini-major. Hmm.
UPDATE: 
This exclusive deal with Netflix might be impressive if more of Relativity Media’s movies did better at the box office. So it’s not exactly earth-shattering that Ryan Kavanaugh just told me that, at 12:01 AM Tuesday, Netflix is sending out a news release about Relativity no longer delivering its movies to pay TV channels. Instead, Relativity’s pics will now be shown via Netflix’s online streaming service. Insiders are calling this the “largest pay TV deal ever” — if that’s what it is. 
This will include going forward up to 30 movies per year. The first movies to go through the deal are the Nic Cage starrer Season of The Witch, the Brothers Strauss’ Skyline and The Fighter starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. And maybe the Sundance-buzzed documentary Catfish and Wes Craven’s horror film My Soul To Take, among Relativity’s future movies. (How many underperforming Relativity films will be included as well?) Sorry, but it’s hilarious to think this deal will make HBO or Showtime or Starz or Epix shudder, especially as they continue to move away from showing movies and more towards original programming.
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Please! There isn’t a SINGLE movie put out by Relativity that anyone has seen! It’s a boys club of inexperienced industry hacks who think they are actually making a difference. And Netflix? Really? Who uses Netflix. Sorry, this ain’t news. News from Relativity will be when one of their movies actually MAKES money. LOL.
I use Netflix. I love Netflix. Everybody I know who uses Netflix loves Netflix.
And no, I don’t work for Netflix.
What planet are you writing us from? Can you see the oil spill from there?
Lol, yes, this exactly.
Yeah, ditto on that Netflix comment. Everyone I know has a Netflix account, and so do I. It’s a fantastic service and one of the best-run companies around.
Reportedly Netflix has over 14 million subscribers.
You might also want to ask Movie Gallery about its 700+ recently closed stores and how Redbox & Netflix where some of the causes.
All those major deals the studios made to keep new releases away from Redbox & Netflix for 28 days must be because no one uses them.
Nice try.
Is it just the single pictures or the ones they co-finance as well?
Um, Netflix is currently the world’s largest streaming service.
Relativity has had plenty of successful films. And ‘no one uses Netflix’? Really?
It seems totally separate, so why would it be an issue with the pay channels. This is just for the Internet as opposed to the pay channels.
Most of Starz movies are available on Netflix instant viewing. In fact you can watch the Starz channel online through Netflix. And once the most Showtime series hit DVD they are also on Netflix instant viewing too.
When is Elliott going to wise up to this guy? These announcements are all smoke and mirrors. Anyone remember the big Relativity promises made on Image Entertainment?
If Netflix continues to stream the Starz movies (Disney, Sony) in the pay window plus has the Relativity films exclusively — then for all you movie people, Netflix looks alot more progressive than say….Epix or Showtime. The internet is the future, after all.
snooze! this isn’t interesting, revolutionary, groundbreaking or interesting. oh, already said that. was just so god damn bored i lost track. this is a company with so many pursuits it lacks focus. whether it’s nightclubs or t-shirts, social networking sites or being a mini studio, there’s no clarity. just a lot of hype and hyperbole! this also ran will soon come to a close.
WOW are you out if touch. Who uses Netflix? I can’t believe anyone in the industry asks that question.
SPARTACUS was made golden by being available on Netflix Streaming, and it increased the Starz paid enrollment.
I think you need to get out if 2002 and see how business is being done these days.
Now, Relativity just needs some better content…
“And Netflix? Really? Who uses Netflix.”
lol, With 13 million subscribers they are the world’s largest subscription service streaming movies and TV episodes over the Internet and with more and more TV’s this fall coming to market that are internet ready, they are only going to get bigger and bigger. It is the way to watch TV at home.
Folks, you forget today is. It’s July 5th. The day after the national holiday of July 4th.
July 5th is what’s referred to as a “slow news day”. And this is a slow news day story.
Bob Pisano current President and COO of MPAA, was auditioning for Screen Actors Guild NED back in 2001 – he set the whole thing in motion.
He was on the board of Netflix back then, “just a little startup company”, and against the protests of certain board members, the SAG National Board led by Melissa Gilbert’s Restore Respect, (which morphed into U4S),didn’t see any kind of conflict of interest to have the NED of Screen Actors Guild sit on the board of NetFlix!
So he was hired, and his chief counsel? David White, now current NED of Screen Actors Guild.
Pisano then insisted on a one-year extension of the contract in 2004 in order to “study how to get an increase in DVD’s, (but really the ploy was to take SAG out of alignment with Writer Guild of America, and we know now how devastating their strike was because SAG was not within striking distance of their contract expiration) saying that the “second bite of the apple”, increase in DVD residual formula, would be fought for in 2005. What did Bob do? He CAVED on fighting for any DVD increases. And the joint negotiating team of SAG/Aftra caved with him.
(But when Pisano got involved with MPAA after he was fired from SAG, he quietly was forced to divest his stock because of conflict of interest.)
Why all the history?
Because Pisano set NetFlix up: this streaming of product cuts off actors ability to earn any money on residuals — their lifeline between paying jobs.
Has anyone received a residual from anything streamed on the Internet?And where is “everything” going?
You may say this is a nothing story, but NetFlix ain’t stopping at Relativity. An I can bet my residuals that Pisano has a silent stake in Netflix for delivering actors without a squeak.
Whatever, but as someone who makes a living from film distribution, this is the part of the story that gets me worried:
“…especially as they continue to move away from showing movies and more towards original programming.”
“Sorry, but it’s hilarious to think this deal will make HBO or Showtime or Starz or Epix shudder”
And when did Netflix say that this deal would make anyone shudder, Nikki? It’s just another deal to bolster their online streaming.
This is a frightening first blow against cable programmers and providers. There is little doubt that eventually, internet streaming to living room televisions will be affordable and user-friendly. Netflix is amassing a library of movies and off-network TV series that add up to a very compelling library and volume proposition, evading the whole pay-basic-syndication windowing system.
Original programming successes or now, the pay networks do need significant movie inventory to continue to be viable as 24-hour services — theatrical movies comprise by far the largest part of their programming day, and I doubt a pay network without a solid theatrical footprint, including a number of important exclusive titles, can be viable competitively as a marketing proposition.
Basic cable networks get something even more essential from acquired content — ratings and lead-ins. The utility, market, and demand for an off-net series like BIG BANG THEORY is challenged if the same content is available –probably less commercialized — in a more in-demand environment like Netflix.
There are a lot of smart guys at Netflix, and they’re going to do an end-run on cable.
How much liquidity is Relativity sitting on? Anybody know?
Netflix is fantastic but their streaming library is hot garbage.
The disk-based service is peerless though (especially with option of blu ray). If the streaming offerings came in line with that they would be bulletproof.
“Netflix? Really? Who uses Netflix?”
Hilarious.
Out-of-touch seems to be the theme of the day.
(Prince proclaimed the internet ‘dead’ and refuses to release his new album digitally.)
It amuses me when I see “old dogs” grumbling about change. Digital content distribution is the future. The industry is changing. People are afraid of what they don’t understand, I suppose.
And you’re trashing Relativity? I can look forward to streaming Robin Hood, Get Him to the Greek and Grown Ups. Clearly you’re not the demo. Hahaha.
You’re pathetic.
Wrong movies.
Those are studio co-fi films which will go to HBO (Universal) and Starz (Sony) where their paytv output deals are, respectively. Relativity co-financed them but did not produce them.
Netflix is merely going to stream the in-house produced films.
You’ll need HBO for Robin Hood and Greek, and Starz for Grown Ups, so read more carefully from now on, Brian.
Products that go direct to Netflix streaming doesn’t seem to attack the Pay TV channels as much as it attacks the video sales. Why buy something that is always available (and already paid for in your monthly Netflix subscription) in the Instant Queue? Strikes me as more of a attack on Redbox, Blockbuster, and retailers.
What is interesting about this is how it might affect residuals.
Will this fall under Pay TV or Home Video residual formulas? At least for the WGA, Pay TV residuals are much higher at 1.2% of gross revenue while Home Video residuals are something like .3% (1.5% of 20%) of gross revenue.
Nice, I have been a long time Netflix subscriber and have access to it streaming many ways and this just adds to it.
I wonder if they allow Netflix streaming in jail. Hopefully Kavanaugh’s bunk-mate likes Land of Lost.
Wow. The largest pay TV deal ever. And I am comment number eleven almost 24 hours after the story was posted.
Great! I refuse to pay Showtime or HBO after they went so far downhill even with 5 channels each, they suck. I love NETFLIX and I do love the streaming movie service, it’s GREAT we watch it all of the time.