Subscription movie channel Starz has instructed Netflix to stop streaming Sony movies this week while it irons out contractual issues with the studio, reports Deadline.
Neftlix streams a large selection of movies from the channel under the ‘StarzPlay’ imprint. This has included content from many of the major studios including Sony. Some of the movies that Netflix has been instructed to stop streaming for the time being include The Social Network, Salt and Easy A.
The problem is that the contract that Starz has with Sony to deliver the studio’s movies to online viewers has a cap on how many times the movies can be shown each month. The massive popularity of the Netflix service has caused Starz to exceed the cap set forth in the contract by Sony.
In a post on the official Netflix blog, VP of content Pauline Fischer revealed the temporary removal of Sony content.
“You may have noticed that Sony movies through StarzPlay are not currently available to watch instantly. This is the result of a temporary contract issue between Sony and Starz”, Fischer said, “while these two valued partners work through their differences, we hope you are enjoying the wide variety of new movies and TV shows added daily.”
At this point the terms of the contract between Starz and Sony have not been disclosed and it is not clear what steps Starz will have to take to start streaming Sony movies again. If I had to, I’d guess that it it will involve lots of money.
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