Netflix, continuing to encroach on the turf of premium movie
channels, announced a multiyear agreement to offer first-run films
distributed by FilmDistrict for streaming over the Internet in the
pay-TV window a few months after their release on DVD.
Financial
terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Under the deal, motion pictures
that traditionally would have been licensed to premium cable channels
from HBO, Showtime Networks or Starz Entertainment will instead be
available to Netflix for streaming to its members, beginning in 2011.
To
be sure, it's a comparatively tiny deal: FilmDistrict, created this
fall, expects to distribute between four and eight wide release
commercial pictures per year. The movie acquisition, production and
distribution firm was founded by producer Graham King and his business
partners Tim Headington and Peter Schlessel, who is now FilmDistrict's
CEO.
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