Universal Pictures on Sunday announced a lucrative renewed pact with HBO that will keep the studio’s films on the cable system — and off Netflix — into the next decade.
The announcement came about a month after Netflix nabbed its biggest studio yet, the Walt Disney Company, highlighting the competition between cable players like HBO and Internet upstarts. The old Disney films included in the deal, like “Alice in Wonderland,” are now available on Netflix; new releases will begin to show up on Netflix in 2016, after Disney’s current deal with Starz expires.
The first agreement between HBO, a unit of Time Warner, and Universal, a unit of Comcast’s NBCUniversal, came in 2003. With the extension through 2022, HBO now has the rights to about half of Hollywood big releases until then.
It has similar long-term deals with 20th Century Fox, Summit Entertainment and its sister company Warner Brothers. A person with knowledge of the deal, however, said HBO did not intend to pursue Sony Pictures, whose deal with Starz is scheduled to end in 2016.
Bruce Grivetti, the president for film programming for HBO, alluded to the company’s confidence in a statement on Sunday: “We are excited to extend our relationship with Universal Pictures and have now solidified HBO’s position for first-run theatricals into the next decade.”
Movie rights remain critical to HBO, despite the success of original shows like “True Blood” and “Game of Thrones,” because they attract big audiences and fill much of the channel’s schedule. HBO extended its movie deal with 20th Century Fox last year.
By staying in business with HBO through Universal, Comcast is choosing not to go directly to consumers with its own streaming movie service. The closest thing Comcast has to that is Streampix, an on-demand bundle of movies and old TV shows that Comcast cable customers can buy.
Comcast may also be signaling that it is not interested in acquiring Starz, despite industry speculation to the contrary. A spokeswoman for Comcast declined to comment on Sunday.