Counsel Jamice Oxley provides insight on the historic deals that have changed the entertainment industry. As streaming takes center stage, movie licensing agreements for theatrical releases have become crucial. According to The Wrap:

Jamice Oxley, an attorney with New York-based Pryor Cashman's Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment and Digital Media Group, added, "The windows after theatrical release are up for grabs, and nobody really knows how much money is in each."

Building the content library is important for both Netflix and Disney regardless of the window, Oxley added. Though Netflix may profit from the first window since the content will be newer, "for Disney, maybe they feel that they've got a lot of fresh, big, things that are new stuff for them, and the (Sony deal) is just to keep feeding the giant beast with more."

For Sony, which has suffered financial problems in recent years (as well as the long-lasting negative press surrounding the infamous "Sony hack" of 2014) profiting from two windows is of course better than selling just one. The company has made public its intention not to jump into the independent subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) game by introducing its own branded streaming service like a Disney+ or Apple+. In 2019, Sony shut down its pay-TV streaming service Vue, which Vox disparagingly called the "pay-TV service you never used."

Sony remains a stakeholder in the advertiser-supported (AVOD) streaming service Crackle (majority-owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and streaming CSS movies and TV shows) but two years ago sold its majority interest in Crackle — now called Crackle Plus.

Industry watchers say staying out of the increasingly competitive SVOD world provides a practical model for a studio like Sony, reaping financial rewards without spending the billions in would take to launch a streaming service that could realistically compete with Netflix or Disney+. Oxley pointed out that Sony's Playstation and gaming business may be viewed as a stronger asset than its film studio so it makes sense not to invest in launching its own branded streamer. In fact, games revenue soared 34% and music sales grew 11%.

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