The filmmaker’s Netflix deal is an unspoken critique of NBCU’s Peacock
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s relationship with NBC dates from 1969, when he made his directorial debut on an episode of Rod Serling’s anthology series Night Gallery starring Joan Crawford. Its corporate sibling, Universal Pictures, provides office space for his Amblin Entertainment production company and has distributed many of his biggest films, including Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park and the Oscar-winning Schindler’s List.
But when it came to striking a streaming deal, The filmmaker’s Netflix deal is an unspoken critique of NBCU’s Peacock
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s relationship with NBC dates from 1969, when he made his directorial debut on an episode of Rod Serling’s anthology series Night Gallery starring Joan Crawford. Its corporate sibling, Universal Pictures, has been his professional home ever sinceCK, providingCK office space for his Amblin Entertainment production company and distributing many of his biggest films, including Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park and the Oscar-winning Schindler’s List.
But when it came to striking a streaming deal, Spielberg eschewed NBCUniversal’s slow-growing Peacock in favor of the market leader, Netflix, giving Co-CEO Ted Sarandos the chance to take another victory lap around Hollywood’s traditional studios.
“Steven is a creative visionary and leader and, like so many others around the world, my growing up was shaped by his memorable characters and stories that have been enduring, inspiring and awakening,” Sarandos said in a statement. “We cannot wait to get to work with the Amblin team and we are honored and thrilled to be part of this chapter of Steven’s cinematic history.”
Terms of the multi-year movie deal were not disclosed.
While some focused on the irony of Spielberg making films for Netflix following a 2018 kerfuffle over Roma’s Oscar eligibility, in which the director was reportedly supporting rule changes that would ban films that are primarily distributed online from qualifying. Both sides say the fight, jinned up by Indiewire, had been overblown (Spielberg never attended the board meeting where the purported rule changes were to have been proposed). The director’s decision is more revealing of Peacock’s performance nearly a year after its launch: Why would one of the world’s most successful directors join forces with a streaming laggard?
NBCU, which is controlled by Comcast’s billionaire CEO Brian Roberts and has its hand in sports, broadcast and cable television, film and theme parks, says Peacock has attracted 42 million sign-ups since last July — an opaque metric that obscures the number of actual users. Roughly one-third of those are “monthly active accounts,” another non-standard form of measurement that includes subscribers to its Peacock Premium or Premium Plus services and those that watch a free, ad-supported version of the service. Another metric NBC’s executives use to tout the service: it has logged more than 1 billion total hours watched, which is double the projections made when the service launched last July.
Still, Peacock ranks eighth among the major subscription streaming services, with only 10% of broadband households reporting that they pay for one of Peacock's two subscription services, according to researcher Parks Associates. That leaves it well behind the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, all of which have had more than a dozen years’ head start in streaming.
Like other services, Peacock suffered from a paucity of original content at launch because the pandemic halted film and television production. It also counted on a lift from the Tokyo Olympics, which was postponed from July 2020 — timing that would have coincided with the service’s nationwide launch — to this summer. NBCUniversal plans 7,000 hours of programming around the summer Olympics, including live coverage on Peacock of some of the games’ biggest events, such as gymnastics, track and field and U.S. baseketball.
NBCU has been working overtime this year to bulk up its content offerings, negotiating exclusive rights to World Wrestling Entertainment match-ups in a reported $1 billion, five-year deal announced in January. Under terms of the agreement, WWE shut down its streaming service and licensed its programming to Peacock. In March, NBC Sports announced an 11-year extension of its deal with the NFL that will bring Sunday Night Football games to the streaming service in addition to the broadcast network.
Peacock also snagged exclusive streaming rights to The Office, one of the most popular shows on Netflix, with NBCU paying a reported $500 million over the next five years. It’s unclear whether that investment is paying off. Since Dunder Mifflin changed its streaming address in January, The Office has dropped out of Nielsen’s ranking of the Top 10 acquired shows, because the measurement firm does not include Peacock in its weekly tally of streaming activity.
All of that makes Spielberg’s announcement even more of a blow. The director will still make movies for theatrical release with Universal, including a forthcoming semi-autobiographical film starring Oscar-nominee Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Paul Dano. That distribution deal, which extends through 2025, is unaffected by the agreement to make movies for Netflix’s 208 million subscribers.
Amblin and Netflix have been doing business for years. Spielberg’s studio made the 10-episode limited series The Haunting of Hill House, and its sequel, The Haunting of Bly Manor, for the service and is developing a documentary series based on Jamie Ducharme’s book The Big Vape, about the controversial e-cigarette company Juul. Netflix acquired the studio’s Academy Award-nominated The Trial of the Chicago 7, and is collaborating with Amblin on Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein film, Maestro, which is in pre-production.
A spokesperson for NBCU did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
“Steven is a creative visionary and leader and, like so many others around the world, my growing up was shaped by his memorable characters and stories that have been enduring, inspiring and awakening,” Sarandos said in a statement. “We cannot wait to get to work with the Amblin team and we are honored and thrilled to be part of this chapter of Steven’s cinematic history.”
Terms of the multi-year movie deal were not disclosed.
While some focused on the irony of Spielberg making films for Netflix following a 2018 kerfuffle over Roma’s Oscar eligibility, in which the director was reportedly supporting rule changes that would ban films that are primarily distributed online from qualifying. Both sides say the fight, ginned up by Indiewire, had been overblown (Spielberg never attended the board meeting where the purported rule changes were to have been proposed). The director’s decision to strike a movie deal with Netflix is more revealing of Peacock’s performance nearly a year after its launch: Why would one of the world’s most successful directors join forces with a streaming laggard?
NBCU, a unit of Comcast that has its hand in sports, broadcast and cable television, film and theme parks, says Peacock has attracted 42 million sign-ups since last July — an opaque metric that obscures the number of actual users. Roughly one-third of those are “monthly active accounts,” another non-standard form of measurement that includes subscribers to its Peacock Premium or Premium Plus services and those that watch a free, ad-supported version of the service. Another metric NBC’s executives use to tout the service’s gains: it has logged more than 1 billion total hours watched, which is double the projections made when the service launched last July.
Still, Peacock ranks eighth among the major subscription streaming services, with only 10% of broadband households reporting that they pay for one of Peacock's two subscription services, according to researcher Parks Associates. That leaves it well behind the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, all of which have had more than a dozen years’ head start in streaming.
Like other services, Peacock suffered from a paucity of original content at launch because the pandemic halted film and television production. It also counted on a lift from the Tokyo Olympics, which was postponed from July 2020 — timing that would have coincided with the service’s nationwide launch — to this summer. NBCUniversal plans 7,000 hours of programming around the summer Olympics, including live coverage on Peacock of some of the games’ biggest events, such as gymnastics, track and field and U.S. basketball.
NBCU has been working overtime this year to bulk up its content offerings, negotiating exclusive rights to World Wrestling Entertainment match-ups in a reported $1 billion, five-year deal announced in January. Under terms of the agreement, WWE shut down its streaming service and licensed its programming to Peacock. In March, NBC Sports announced an 11-year extension of its deal with the NFL that will bring Sunday Night Football games to the streaming service in addition to the broadcast network.
Peacock also snagged exclusive streaming rights to The Office, one of the most popular shows on Netflix, with NBCU paying a reported $500 million over the next five years. It’s unclear whether that investment is paying off. Since Dunder Mifflin changed its streaming address in January, The Office has dropped out of Nielsen’s ranking of the Top 10 acquired shows, because the measurement firm does not include Peacock in its weekly tally of streaming activity.
All of that makes Spielberg’s announcement even more of a blow. The director will still make movies for theatrical release with Universal, including a forthcoming semi-autobiographical film starring Oscar-nominee Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Paul Dano. That distribution deal, which extends through 2025, is unaffected by the agreement to make movies for Netflix’s 208 million subscribers.
Amblin and Netflix have been doing business for years. Spielberg’s studio made the 10-episode limited series The Haunting of Hill House, and its sequel, The Haunting of Bly Manor, for the service and is developing a documentary series based on Jamie Ducharme’s book The Big Vape, about the controversial e-cigarette company Juul. Netflix acquired the studio’s Academy Award-nominated The Trial of the Chicago 7, and is collaborating with Amblin on Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein film, Maestro, which is in pre-production.
A spokesperson for NBCU did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
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