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Netflix Streaming: The Way Of The Future

With the recent announcement of the Star Wars series coming to Blu-Ray, I recently got into a discussion regarding the disc format versus streaming. I didn’t realize how real things were gonna get so quickly, as it seems Netflix  made a huge move last week:

That seems to be the popular consensus, anyway, since it was revealed last week that Netflix will pay almost $1 billion to Epix over five years for online-streaming rights for movies from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM.

Before that, online streaming might have been considered more a necessary annoyance than an actual business with revenue and profit. But with the stroke of a pen, Netflix has upped the ante so significantly that movie studios have no doubt begun to ratchet up expectations for licensing fees they can charge going forward.

“It certainly proves that on-demand streaming rights have value,” said Jim Packer, co-president of MGM Worldwide Television.

“We’re the only ones that have put real money in play,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

In fact, Netflix probably paid more money for digital rights than traditional pay TV has been willing to pay for television rights in recent years. That’s a sea change.

You should definitely check out the entire article, as it contains more on the effects of this deal, including what this means for pay cable networks (Showtime, HBO), Studios, and how Netflix will most assuredly pass their spending onto their customers (natch).