The news that Amazon will be sending some MGM legacy content to its Freevee Free, Ad-Supported TV (FAST) service will surprise noone. We’ve been waiting for them to offer up content from this beloved legacy studio. However, alongside their announcement came the news that Warner Bros Discovery content will also be making a showing on the platform, and that’s an exciting shift in the streaming landscape. Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A, examines the news.
33 New Channels
The new deal will include 12 MGM-brand channels, reviving chances to see films and shows from their massive archive on dedicated channels as well as ‘theme’ channels for Action, Sci-Fi and more. There will also be 11 channels using both WBD and Discovery studio content. From what information we have, it seems this will mostly be unscripted fare, including some classics like Say Yes to the Dress and Cake Boss.
This is also part of a wider, and rather aggressive, push on the Amazon side to launch new channels on newly-rebranded Freevee, mining Amazon back-titles and even Prime Video content, as well as some deals with Lionsgate.
WBD Leads a New Push- Maybe
While it’s unsurprising that Amazon would want to put the glittering catalog of older films and shows under the MGM banner to work for them, especially after shelling out around $8.5B for the Hollywood studio, it’s worth paying a little attention to the WBD side of this deal. They’re trying to license a lot of programming to FAST services in general at the moment, with deals with Roku and Tubi also inked for some HBO Max programming, and even older Warner Bros properties (like The Bachelor).
This is one of the first concerted pushes for outsider licensing from a major streaming service we’ve seen to date. And one that makes sense, breathing some new life (and profit) into older programming that has no real reason to remain ‘exclusive’ to a streaming platform that has no space for it to run. Will this be a new industry trend? Honestly, it could be healthy for everyone concerned, so let’s hope we see more moves in this direction in coming years.
