Twentieth Century Fox and Netflix Announce Comprehensive Strategic Agreement That Includes Physical and Digital Distribution

28-Day Rental Window Covers All New Releases on Blu-ray and DVD;

Streaming License Covers Complete Prior Seasons of Hit TV Shows Such as "24," "Bones" and "Lie to Me," as well as Catalog Titles

News provided by

Netflix, Inc.

Apr 09, 2010, 03:01 ET

LOS ANGELES, April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. (Fox) and Netflix, Inc. [Nasdaq: NFLX] today announced an expansion of their agreements encompassing both physical and digital distribution of Fox movies and television programs.

The expansion of the license for Fox streaming content, including a first-time streaming license for Fox TV shows that includes complete prior seasons of several blockbuster television series, allows Netflix to provide its more than 12 million members access to a greater variety movies and TV episodes from the studio's library.

As part of the agreement, Twentieth Century Fox will have the ability to determine the window on its content in both the physical and streaming formats. The agreement provides for a 28-day window from the home entertainment street date for new Blu-ray and DVD film releases, and varying dates of availability for its library and new television programming. Among the first DVD/Blu-ray releases under this arrangement will be AVATAR, which will be available to Netflix customers 28 days after its April 22 street date.

"A key aspect of our content delivery strategy is to provide consumers with attractive options to view our movies and television shows across a broad range of media, windows, and business models," said Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, co-chairmen and CEO's Fox Filmed Entertainment. "This expanded relationship with Netflix offers our audiences more choice and convenient access to a wide variety of our content."

"This new streaming partnership with Netflix affords Fox the necessary flexibility to effectively manage our overall product offering by determining the content and appropriate window relative to our other media offerings," said Peter Levinsohn, president of new media and digital distribution for Fox Filmed Entertainment. "We look forward to working with Netflix and our other partners to further enhance the digital experience across screens of all sizes."

"In a rapidly changing world of windows and technology, this deal reflects a long-standing relationship between Netflix and Fox and is an example of how we can work together creatively," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix. "We believe the Fox deal, which brings some of the studio's great TV franchises and a library of both contemporary and classic movies to the growing percentage of Netflix members who are watching instantly, is a win all around."

The streaming agreement with Fox makes a wealth of popular TV series available to watch instantly, including all prior seasons of current hit series like "Lie to Me," "Bones," "24," and "King of the Hill," as well as complete seasons of library TV hits such as "Prison Break," "Arrested Development" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The deal also includes many popular contemporary films, like "Aliens," "The Thin Red Line," "Romancing the Stone" and Academy Award™ winning film classics like "Patton." In all, a wide array of movies and TV series will be available to stream from Netflix, with new and more choices to be added over the lifetime of the agreement.

About Fox Filmed Entertainment

One of the world's largest producers and distributors of motion pictures, Fox Filmed Entertainment produces, acquires and distributes motion pictures throughout the world. These motion pictures are produced or acquired by the following units of FFE: Twentieth Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox Animation.

About Netflix

With more than 12 million members, Netflix, Inc. [Nasdaq: NFLX] is the world's largest subscription service streaming movies and TV episodes over the Internet and sending DVDs by mail. For $8.99 a month, Netflix members can instantly watch unlimited TV episodes and movies streamed to their TVs and computers and can receive unlimited DVDs delivered quickly to their homes. With Netflix, there are never any due dates or late fees. Members can select from a growing library of titles that can be watched instantly and a vast array of titles on DVD. Among the large and expanding base of devices that can stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix right to members' TVs are Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PS3 game consoles and, this spring, Nintendo's Wii console; Blu-ray disc players from Samsung, LG and Insignia; Internet TVs from LG, Sony and VIZIO; the Roku digital video player and TiVo digital video recorders; and Apple's iPad tablet. For more information, visit http://www.netflix.com.

SOURCE Netflix, Inc.