Netflix Lines Up DreamWorks Animation Films for Streaming in 2013

September 26, 2011 · Posted in M&E Daily, Today's M&E Connections 

Netflix and DreamWorks Animation announced their completion of an agreement for the streaming video service to begin offering DreamWorks films and television specials in 2013 (via The New York Times). For the studio, the deal—under which Netflix will pay an estimated $30 million per picture, according to analysts—replaces a licensing agreement between DreamWorks and HBO.

DreamWorks Animation chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg tells the Times that the deal is “game-changing,” in that it represented the first time a major Hollywood studio chose a video streaming service over a pay-TV network for distribution of its films. But others see the announcement—rumors of which first surfaced in July—as more of a stopgap publicity measure for Netflix, which is still responding to customer outcry over its price increases and further separation of the company’s discs-by-mail and streaming services.

CNET contends that the company needs to land major-studio streaming content sooner rather than later, as Netflix’s distribution pact with Starz (under which the company has offered streaming films from Disney and Sony Pictures) is due to end in February 2012.

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