Netflix & Sony Pictures Close $7B-Plus Exclusive Global Pay-1 Deal In Industry First

Netflix and Sony Pictures Entertainment said Thursday that they have hammered out an industry-first $7 billion-plus worldwide Pay-1 licensing deal for the latter’s movies, which will stream on the OTT service around the globe following their full theatrical and home entertainment windows. That’s a significant jump in SPE’s theatrical output value since its 2021 Netflix Pay-1 agreement. The big deal here is the overseas portion of the pay-1 deal. Sony movies will no longer be split up among myriad parties in their offshore pay-1 window. Netflix and Sony didn’t provide financial terms on the deal. The new global pact isn’t a shocker: Sony movies such as Anyone But You and It Ends With Us have continually been among Netflix’s top 10 most-watched films in any given moment; not to mention the streamer had Sony Animation’s KPop Demon Hunters as a first-run title on the service; that pic became the streamer’s most watched movie at a half-billion views and also its first No. 1 box office hit ($19M) in theaters. Similar to the previous Sony-Netflix pay-1 deal, the streamer will continue to license rights to select SPE feature film and TV library titles. Watch on Deadline Word was that Sony was pursuing an offshore pay-1 deal with Amazon, but Netflix stepped up here in a major way; the deal is a continuation of the domestic and partial offshore pay-1 deal the streamer had with Sony, first hatched in 2022 at a value of $2.5 billion over five years. Netflix currently has Pay-1 rights to SPE’s feature films in select territories including the U.S., Germany and across Southeast Asia. Hit films from the current deal include Uncharted, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, It Ends With Us, Anyone But You and Venom: The Last Dance . The new global Pay-1 arrangement will roll out gradually starting later this year as individual territory rights become available, with full global availability on Netflix in early 2029 and continuing through 2032. We understand that the rate card for Sony titles is worth 40% more across the board compared to the first deal. A bulk of that massive increase comes from international. Some of the first SPE movies that will play on Netflix as part of the new deal include the Dakota and Elle Fanning movie The Nightingale , Sony Pictures Animation’s Buds ; Nintendo’s live-action The Legend of Zelda , Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse and Sam Mendes’ upcoming quartet of Beatles films. As Netflix continues to move forward in its acquisition of Warner Bros’ motion picture and TV studios as well as HBO Max , this new deal with Sony could serve as proof to government regulators that the streamer continues to license product from third parties. The Sony deal with Netflix is alongside Netflix and Universal’s U.S. Pay-1B window deal (commencing in 2027) that was announced in October 2024. That was a renewal of the licensing deal for Universal, DreamWorks Animation and Illumination animated titles, as well as Uni and Focus’ live-action titles following their run...

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