Comcast May Pull Universal’s Movies from HBO Max, Netflix

Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal is considering pulling its movies from HBO Max and Netflix Inc. and keeping future new film releases for its streaming service Peacock, according to The Detroit News citing people familiar with the matter.

Currently, HBO Max pays for the rights to show new Universal Pictures movies about nine months after they leave theaters, while Netflix has a similar deal for animated films from Illumination Entertainment, the affiliated studio behind the “Despicable Me” features. Both of those deals expire at the end of this year.

NBCUniversal senior executives are open to new deals with third parties like HBO Max and Netflix, which generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But they are also struggling to rationalize giving some of their most popular titles to competitors.

The outcome of the deliberations will say a lot about Comcast’s commitment to Peacock, a year-old streaming service that has 33 million accounts. The company has yet to commit as much money to original programming as some rivals.

Both Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. owner AT&T Inc. have made original movies a central part of the streaming services they’re now pitching to consumers. Disney declined to renew its deal with Netflix years ago, preferring to keep its movies for its own service. AT&T is making all of its 2021 releases available on its HBO Max streaming platform the same day they hit theaters. Both companies are surrendering hundreds of millions of dollars to boost their nascent services.

Wall Street has bestowed higher stock prices on media companies that are investing heavily in streaming services.

As recently as last summer, Universal was leaning toward licensing its movies to other companies, but the pandemic has delayed and complicated negotiations that began more than a year ago. Some executives at NBCUniversal have also discussed a hybrid deal in which Peacock would share rights with another service, as it does with Disney’s Hulu on the sitcom “Modern Family.” That way, NBCUniversal could use the movies to boost its own service without surrendering all of the licensing money.