What happened
Thursday's bear market was ugly, with many stocks dropping notably. Amazon (AMZN 1.97%), however, wasn't one of them. Its shares were trading up by over 1% in contrast to a declining S&P 500 index; a new video-streaming content deal appears to be a key reason.
So what
Amazon's deal is with Comcast's (CMCSA 0.16%) Hollywood heavyweight Universal. Under the terms of the multiyear arrangement, Amazon Prime Video -- the company's streaming service -- will offer recent live-action Universal movie releases after their premieres on Peacock (Comcast's own streamer).
Image source: Getty Images.
Amazon will be able to screen the Universal movies eight months after their opening days in cinemas, for a duration of 10 months. This is to follow the Peacock debut of those films, which will occur four months after opening day.
Additionally, Amazon has secured the rights to screen Universal releases from this year and last year on its IMDb TV, the free-of-charge streamer connected to its popular IMDb film and TV portal.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Now what
Every streaming video operator wants to be Netflix in terms of gotta-see-it content and prominence. Amazon Prime Video isn't there yet, with a library that is quite scattershot and offers few recent marquee titles included in its base subscription.
Having recent, big-budget movies and franchises like F9 (the latest installment in the seemingly eternal Fast & Furious cars-and-crime series) will garner Prime Video/IMDb TV new attention and publicity. Perhaps it'll even help draw significant new viewership to the for-pay Prime Video.
