We didn’t see that one coming. A few days before Christmas, Amazon has just announced an unexpected partnership with Netflix. The company has validated the broadcast of a selection of content from MGM and certain original Prime Video series, breaking with the logic of total exclusivity which has dominated for a decade.
What movies are coming to Netflix?
From January 15, Netflix will offer several films from the saga James Bonddont Skyfall, No Time to Die et Quantum of Solacein France and several other countries. Amazon-branded series, such as The Man in the High Castle or Hunters, also join the catalog.
The agreement covers major franchises from the Amazon MGM Studios catalog. On the cinema side, Netflix will recover several cult licenses such as James Bond, Rocky, Creed or even Blonde’s Revenge. Please note, however, that this is a temporary partnership: the availability of films James Bond will be limited to a three-month window, which will make it possible to create an event around these broadcasts.
A well-established economic strategy
In 2022, Amazon paid $8.45 billion to acquire MGM. At the time, the deal aimed to boost the attractiveness of Prime Video in the subscription war. But with the slowdown in the growth of streaming, the priority seems less to the compulsive accumulation of exclusives than to the monetization of an already well-developed catalog.
By licensing some of its content, Amazon transforms dormant assets into immediate revenue, without having to produce or promote them again. This logic is similar to that of Warner Bros. Discovery, which has already agreed to release HBO series to competing platforms.
Netflix, future all-in-one aggregator?
In an increasingly fragmented landscape, Netflix’s ability to aggregate competing heterogeneous catalogs becomes a strong argument for keeping users captive. While the platform with the red N still relies on flagship licenses, and has launched into the race to Buy Warner Bros Discovery.
Prime Video refocuses its game on sport
At the same time, Amazon seems to be redesigning the role of Prime Video in its overall ecosystem, by focusing more on sporting events. Catalog films and older series, less differentiating for recruiting new subscribers, logically become natural candidates for licensing to other services. It remains to be seen how the market will evolve subsequently.
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