Epix talks to Dish, others; sees deal soon
Reuters
By Alex Dobuzinskis
December 3, 2009
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Epix, a new movie channel owned by three Hollywood studios, is talking with Dish Network Corp (DISH.O) and other carriers, and expects to secure another distribution deal by early 2010, the premium channel’s top executive said on Thursday.
Mark Greenberg, president and chief executive of Epix, said he is “pretty confident” that another deal will soon be in place, possibly within the next several weeks.
Speaking at the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York, Greenberg added, “If a deal slides from this year to early next year that’s fine by us. It’s more important to get the deals right because the deals last for three to five years.”
Epix was launched October 30 as a joint venture of Viacom Inc’s (VIAb.N) Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGF.N) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc, with just one distribution partner, Verizon Communications Inc’s (VZ.N) FiOS TV service. That means it is currently available only to about 2.5 million households.
Greenberg said Epix is having “meaningful discussions” with Dish Network and other carriers, mainly on the satellite and cable side of the business.
He said the economy was partly to blame for delay in striking deals. “Certainly the recession has an impact because people are being careful how they spend money,” he said.
This week, Glenn Britt, chairman, president and CEO of Time Warner Cable (TWC.N), said his company, which has just under 14 million subscribers, was not close to a deal to carry Epix. “They haven’t come up with an economic formula that makes sense so far,” he said.
Another major distributor, Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O), previously said it was not interested in carrying Epix. Greenberg said he does not know whether that stance will change as a result of Comcast’s deal to take a majority stake in NBC Universal.
MGM FUTURE
With MGM, one of Epix’s owners, widely seen as a possible acquisition target, Greenberg said that even if the studio changes hands it will have no immediate impact on MGM’s output of movies to Epix.
“Our output deals are done for several years for new release, so all the ‘Bond’ movies, any ‘Pink Panther,’ the things that are in development … all of those are already committed to Epix, anything released with the MGM/UA label,” Greenberg said.
In conjunction with its TV channel, Epix introduced a website at EpixHD.com that for now can be accessed only by Verizon FiOS subscribers, who log in with a special code.
The website has movie titles from the libraries of Epix’s three studio parent companies, which users can watch and also invite friends to view remotely with them, from their own computers.
The three studios created Epix after CBS Corp’s (CBS.N) pay-TV network Showtime said last year it wanted to cut fees it was paying the studios to show their movies. Showtime was paying about $300 million in 2008.
In reaction to Showtime’s negotiating stance, Paramount, Lions Gate and MGM opted to create their own network, which allowed them to part ways with Showtime.
(Reporting by Sue Zeidler and Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Matthew Lewis and Steve Orlofsky)
