Universal Filmed Entertainment Group and Amazon have shaken hands on an agreement deal. This deal will license streaming of the former’s films on the Amazon Prime Video streaming platform. This news comes after Universal’s brief run with Peacock ended.
It is a multi-year licensing deal about to begin in 2022. Universal’s live-action films will become Prime Video exclusives. Prime Video along with Amazon’s free and ad-supported streaming service IMDb TV will stream many old and new Universal titles.
Big names on the List
Talking about Prime Video, films including Jurassic World: Dominion, The 355, and Ambulance will be available to stream after their respective theatrical releases are done along with an earlier exclusive 4-month run on Peacock. Big names including Get Out and Love Actually along with franchises including Fast & Furious, Jurassic Park, and Bourne will also be available for streaming. Movies like Minions: The Rise of Gru and DreamWorks’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish will also be available on Prime Video in a while.
IMDb TV will exclusively stream most of the other live-action and animated titles by Universal. These will include titles like The Invisible Man, Fast & Furious 9, and Sing 2. Animated films to be available on IMDb TV include Despicable Me 2, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Shrek 2 among others.
So much more in the future
Amazon will be looking forward to expanding the content offerings on its platforms through the agreement. A reported acquisition of MGM will broaden libraries even further. The inclusion of big franchises including Fast and Jurassic films, will rocket Amazon towards becoming a formidable player in the streaming wars.
Lauren Anderson and Ryan Pirozzi are the co-heads of content and programming at IMDb TV. They were both asked about their thoughts regarding the licensing agreement with Universal. They stated that this was “another step forward in solidifying IMDb TV’s reputation as a premium free destination for blockbuster movies.”
NBCUniversal-owned streaming service Peacock made an announcement earlier this week. They stated that they’ll be the exclusive streaming home of movies from Universal, DreamWorks, Illumination, and Focus Films. This will be within 4 months of their theatre debut. The deal states that the films will stream on Peacock for 4 months. After which the titles can head to other services. These films will then eventually come back to Peacock at the end of the 18-month pay-one window. So just in case, you missed Jurassic World: Dominion or Minions: The Rise of Gru in theatres, you can stream them later on these platforms.
