Amazon Prime Video, IMDb TV Land Movie Licensing Deal With Universal Beginning in 2022
In another major streaming deal with one of the major movie studios, Amazon Prime Video and IMDb TV have landed a licensing agreement with Universal Filmed Entertainment Group.
Under the deal, Prime Video will have an exclusive pay-1 window for Universal’s live-action films in the United States, starting in 2022, including the highly anticipated Jurassic World: Dominion, The 355, and Ambulance.
Earlier this week, Peacock and Universal announced that the NBCUniversal-owned streamer will have an exclusive streaming window for Universal’s slate of films beginning in 2022 beginning 120 days after their theatrical release for four months and during the last four months of a title’s pay-1 window.
No word on the details of the deal, but according to Deadline, they have heard the multi-year deal is estimated to be in the range of ten figures.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.
Thursday’s deal will allow Prime Video to exclusively stream Universal’s titles going forward from 2022 during the middle 10-month period of that 18-month window. As part of that deal, Prime Video will also get rights to a package of Universal films from their library.
This deal marks the first exclusive US pay rights deal with a major studio for Prime Video.
“Recognizing that all parties would benefit from a modernized windowing structure, this new agreement allows Prime Video and IMDb TV to benefit from UFEG’s vast library and diverse content like never before,” said Peter Levinsohn, vice chairman and chief distribution officer, UFEG. “We’re thrilled to team up with Amazon to deliver our titles to its customers. This agreement further delivers on our distribution strategy to monetize our unparalleled movie library across multiple services, while offering customers the most choice, control and flexibility in how, when and where they watch films.”
Amazon has previously had non-exclusive deals with Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate through Epix. and exclusive pay-window contracts with smaller studios like A24, along with exclusive pay window agreements with majors outside the U.S.
In addition, IMDb TV, Amazon’s free streaming service, will get an exclusive window for films from Universal’s 2020-2021 theatrical slate and rights to a package of animated titles, including Dolittle, The Invisible Man, F9 (Fast & Furious 9), and Sing 2, with full exclusivity across AVOD and SVOD, during the license period. In addition, IMDb TV will also have access to select titles in UFEG’s animation library, including Illumination’s Despicable Me 2 and DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Shrek 2.
“This significant deal with UFEG is another step forward in solidifying IMDb TV’s reputation as a premium free destination for blockbuster movies,” said Lauren Anderson and Ryan Pirozzi, co-heads of content and programming at IMDb TV. “Expanding our library with prominent UFEG titles from every genre, IMDb TV continues to deliver on our promise to provide viewers the content they crave with something for everyone.”
This makes IMDb TV the first AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) service to land a television window for titles that traditionally would have gone to broadcast or cable networks.