Turner Broadcasting Buys Commercial-TV Rights to 'Star Wars' Library
September 14 2016 - 10:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Joe Flint
The force is with Turner Broadcasting.
In a multiyear pact, the Time Warner Inc. unit has acquired the
commercial-television rights to the complete library of "Star Wars"
movies, including four future theatrical releases.
All but one of the "Star Wars" titles are controlled by Walt
Disney Co. through its $4.05 billion acquisition of franchise
creator George Lucas's Lucasfilms Ltd. in 2012. The rights to the
original 1977 "Star Wars" film belong to 21st Century Fox.
Terms weren't disclosed but people familiar with the matter said
the price tag for Turner Broadcasting is around $275 million,
depending on the performance of the future releases.
One of the most successful movie franchises of all time, the
"Star Wars" films have grossed over $6 billion in world-wide box
office, trailing only the "Harry Potter" and "James Bond" series.
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," the next in the series, is set for
release at the end of the year.
Besides Turner Broadcasting, other suitors for the
commercial-television rights to the franchise included 21st Century
Fox's FX Networks and Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal cable-network
unit, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.
Under the terms of the roughly eight-year deal, Turner initially
has rights to run the "Star Wars" movies on both its TNT and TBS
channels. It will begin airing them on TNT next week. Turner will
also be able to run some of the films on its Turner Classic Movies
network.
The deal marks a return to commercial television for the
franchise. Walt Disney Co. has kept the "Star Wars" movies off TV
for two years. It has focused heavily on selling them through
iTunes for as much as $20 each.
The agreement with Turner Broadcasting is separate from Disney's
pact with the noncommercial subscription pay-TV channel Starz,
which has the rights to the latest "Star Wars" movie, "The Force
Awakens." Future "Star Wars" titles will go to Netflix as part of a
deal Disney struck with the streaming service.
Despite the ubiquity of popular movies on television, streaming
services and elsewhere, cable networks continue to spend heavily on
feature films because they often age well and don't require heavy
marketing efforts. Earlier this year, NBCUniversal struck a deal
with Time Warner's Warner Bros. for the "Harry Potter" library as
well as rights to J.K. Rowling's "Fantastic Beast" franchise, which
has its theatrical debut this November. The movies will run
primarily on the USA and Syfy networks.
--Ben Fritz contributed to this article.
Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 14, 2016 10:14 ET (14:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024