The pay cable channel Starz has completed a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, extending an agreement for exclusive access to Sony movies through 2021.
Though the terms were not disclosed in the official news release issued by Sony and Starz on Monday morning, an executive with knowledge of the negotiations put the cost to Starz at about $2 billion over five years. The executive spoke under the condition of anonymity because terms of the deal were not supposed to be publicly disclosed.
That figure would eclipse the price tag that Netflix is thought to have paid the Walt Disney Company in December for exclusive access to its movies starting in 2016. That price was estimated at about $350 million a year.
Starz was the pay cable outlet that lost out to Netflix in that deal, and Netflix was also aggressively bidding to add the Sony movies to its growing catalog. Because of that,securing a movie studio’s output as an anchor became more critical for Starz.
The Sony deal means the channel will continue to have first-run home television right to Sony Pictures movies. Titles that will appear on Starz in 2013 include “The Amazing Spider-Man,†“Men in Black 3†and “Zero Dark Thirty.â€
