2ND UPDATE: Deal is done. See news release below.
UPDATE: I’ve learned that as soon as tomorrow there’ll be a news release about EPIX giving Netflix exclusive online rights to films from its partners — Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM — for the next 5 years in exchange with $1 billion in licensing fees. Of course, who knows what those 5 years will bring in terms of product? Paramount has been self-financing its limited product and mostly distributing pics, Lionsgate is fighting a hostile takeover, and MGM is a corpse waiting for an afterlife. But all Netflix seems to care about these days is supposedly shaking up the pay channel world with exclusive online streaming deals like the recent one with Relativity Media. And who knows what shape Ryan Kavanaugh’s company will be in a few years.
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NEW YORK and BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., August 10, 2010 – EPIX™ and Netflix, Inc. [Nasdaq: NFLX] today announced an agreement through which Netflix members can instantly watch an array of new releases and library titles from EPIX streamed over the Internet from Netflix. Movies from the multi-year deal will begin streaming from Netflix on September 1 and include movies from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM.
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