Warner Brothers has signed a deal with BSkyB that will see Sky customers in Ireland and the UK get exclusive access to Warner releases six months after they end their cinema run.
Sky fought off bids from Netflix and Amazon, which gives it first television screening rights on titles such as ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’
The multi-year agreement will see Sky’s premium movie channels and its new Internet service Now TV get exclusive access to Warner releases around six months after they finish up in cinemas.
Prior to that the films will appear non-exclusively on the Sky Box Office pay-per-view-service at the same time as their release on DVD.
The deal is a blow to video-on-demand providers Netflix and Amazon’s Lovefilm, which had hoped to outbid Sky for the rights. Lovefilm already has a deal to make Warner films and TV shows available a year after they are first shown on Sky.
