Inside the Fight for Exclusive Content as Streamers Acquire Studio Libraries

Increasing demand for exclusive programming has streaming services looking to acquire studio content libraries to fill the need. Even as mega-streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ are unveiling major plans to produce original content, experts say demand is high to acquire studio libraries in what one entertainment executive called a “battle royale” to catch and hold subscribers. “When you just think of a very simple kind of economic supply-and-demand perspective, there’s a demand out there now because of streamers,” Curtis Vega, head of the global media and communications sector for the corporate banking division of HSBC, told TheWrap. “Their finance is really either built by production, or it’s built by the library.” Erick Opeka, chef strategy officer and president of Cinedigm Networks, said studios navigating the streaming wars are becoming more protective of their library content than in the past. The search for exclusivity makes that content even more valuable. “The depth and availability of titles is reducing as they either enter into longer term, bigger deals with very big players, or reserve titles for their own streaming services,” Opeka said. “The idea of being able to get exclusivity and things like that is even less than it was...

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