Sony Just Announced Their Streaming Service, It’s Called Netflix.
Nicole Sperling for The New York Times:
In another sign of Netflix’s growing dominance, Sony Pictures Entertainment has signed a five-year deal that will give the streaming giant the exclusive U.S. rights to Sony’s films once they leave theaters and premium video-on-demand services.
The deal, which begins with the studio’s 2022 releases, builds on Netflix’s existing partnership with Sony Pictures Animation and replaces the agreement Sony, one of the few major studios without its own streaming service, has had with Starz Entertainment since 2005.
I joke. But I’m also serious. This is smart for Sony. While we’re still in a period of immense exhuberence, the reality has long been clear: when the “streaming wars” shake out, we’re going to be left with maybe a half dozen large players at scale. Disney+ is clearly going to be one. Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and HBO Max, look right now to be three more. Obviously, Netflix is the current king of the hill, and is likely to stay that way. That leaves maybe one more slot.¹ Maybe no more slots.
A number of players are going to learn this the hard way, with millions (billions?) spent and years wasted. They’ll eventually have to partner up as well. And if Netflix remains the biggest player with the widest reach, it will likely be them (unless Amazon and/or Apple decide to go full loss-leader and just pay up non-stop for content).
So good on Sony for recognizing this early. Even more impressive when you consider that they have a very popular device connected to televisions in hundreds of millions of homes — the PlayStation. They could have tried to brute force their way in here, but maybe they saw the writing on the wall with their VOD service already.
And Sony will make some direct-to-Netflix movies as a result as well, giving Netflix a very close major studio partner. Oh, and Spider-Man. Sorry about that, Marvel/Disney.
¹ Hulu will undoubtedly be a part of Disney’s package eventually. Same with ESPN. They’re already bundled together. Peacock? I like their free ad-driven approach as a differentiator, but I don’t know how well it’s actually working. YouTube will obviously always be a giant here, but oddly gave up on amazing things like Cobra Kai, as they continue down the UGC path…
