News

This is huge, and has implications spanning more than just online streaming.

According to reports, Neflix has signed a deal with Relativity Media, that will give the company rights to stream theatrical film releases online and through Netflix enabled set top devices, prior to hitting pay cable channels like HBO or Cinemax.

The deal will kick off with films like David O. Russell’s upcoming Christian Bale led film, The Fighter, as well as the Strause Brother directed film Skyline, and has been described as a “big shift in the film distribution model.”

Personally, while this is indeed a huge step in the model of film distribution, this also doesn’t bode well for the companies like HBO and Showtime. What can already be considered the case, this just adds to the ever lacking slate of films on pay cable channels, who are slowly having to rely on original programming...

Through a deal made with Relativity Media, Netflix will stream a number of that company's titles mere months after their DVD release. The long-term agreement is significant in that the selected films will be available with Netflix's Watch Instantly feature (now available on the iPad and soon the iPhone) instead of airing on HBO, Showtime or any other premium cable channel during the usual "pay TV window." According to a press release, this is the first time studio quality theatrical feature films will be offered in a streaming option for Netflix subscribers.

Relativity has a lot of anticipated films coming out this year, including The Social Network, The Other Guys and Charlie St. Cloud, but the first wave of titles linked to the deal include David O. Russell's The Fighter, starring Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams, and Season of the Witch, which reunites Nic Cage with director Dominic Sena.

Netflix teams up with Relativity Media for online streaming Netflix, Inc. and Relativity Media, LLC today announced a long term agreement through which major theatrically released films owned by Relativity will be licensed directly and exclusively to Netflix for streaming to its subscribers during the "pay TV window." Traditionally, these films have flowed through Relativity's studio releasing partners to output deals with premium TV channels.

The deal marks a continued shift in the distribution of major motion pictures in the U.S. Under the agreement, an increasing amount of popular contemporary movies previously encumbered by pay TV agreements with premium channels such as HBO, Showtime and Starz will become available to be streamed from Netflix months - and not years - after their release on DVD. It will be the first time that studio quality theatrical feature films will be streamed via subscription by Netflix instead of being broadcast by the traditional pay providers,...

Relativity Media has announced a deal with Netflix, to stream upcoming theatrical movie releases to Netflix subscribers instead of being released on premium television channels like HBO, Cinemax Showtime and Starz. The company claims this is the first time this has been done, and marks a "big shift in the film distribution model. Among the first wave of films covered under the Netflix-Relativity deal are “The Fighter,” starring Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams and distributed by Paramount Pictures, and “Skyline,” co-directed by the Brothers Strause and released by Rogue Pictures and Universal Studios. Both films are scheduled for theatrical release later this year and to be available at Netflix in early 2011. Also on tap for Netflix are Rogue Pictures’ Nicolas Cage action/thriller “Season of the Witch” and “Movie 43,” written and directed by Peter Farley. Both are set to hit theaters this year as well. I'm ...