As many major movie studios focus on vertically integrating their titles rather than selling them to third parties in the Pay 1 window, the Pay 2 window has become all the more pivotal. Spain is an example of a market that has a heavy presence of virtually every studio owned SVOD so Pay 2 is especially important to third parties there. Movie Tracker reveals the biggest players acquiring movies across the past six months in this window.
Spain is one market where Netflix has struggled in the Pay 1 window, only acquiring three movies from major studios from the past two years. Unlike other markets where the service has content deals with the likes of Sony, or acquire a number of indie movies, in Spain the Pay 1 window is much more limited.
To this end, Netflix is much more active in the Pay 2 window, acquiring multiple titles from both Sony - who instead primarily sell to Movistar in the Pay 1 window - and Paramount - who more recently has focused their Pay 1 activity on Netflix’s historical rival Amazon.
Amazon remain competitive in the Pay 2 window in Spain, acquiring an equal number of movies from studios in the same period as Netflix, particularly from NBCUniversal after their original Pay 1 debut on Movistar services.
Despite Movistar’s dominance in the Pay 1 window, they remain keen to acquire the right movies in the Pay 2 window where possible too. High profile Warner titles, such as The Batman, The Matrix Revolutions and Fantastic Beasts were acquired by Movistar after they were originally vertically integrated by Warner onto HBO Max in Spain, alongside other markets where the service is available. In this regard Warner’s Pay 1 strategy mirrors that of its first window activity for scripted TV.
The exit of Lionsgate+ in Spain and other markets resulted in the second window pickup of many of its TV series by MGM+. This has also extended to movies that first went on the service like Traffik Lionsgate’s other title Voyager however, which first appeared on Amazon Prime, instead has gone to local SVOD FilmIn who is typically more active as a buyer for indie movies.
There only remains a limited opportunity for local players like FilmIn in the Pay 2 window, as the likes of Netflix, Amazon and even Movistar are forced to be more aggressive buyers in this period too. As smaller services are likely to get pushed out as buyers to windows beyond, traditional Free TV buyers may struggle to acquire content that is both new and exclusive as a result.
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