SEATTLE and BEVERLY HILLS — As was rumoured last week, Amazon and MGM have entered into a merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire MGM for US$8.45 billion.
Still subject to regulatory approval, the transaction will see Amazon acquiring MGM’s vast catalogue of more than 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows, which include the James Bond franchise of movies and series such as The Handmaid’s Tale, Fargo and Vikings.
“MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and complements the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming. Amazon will help preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films, and provide customers with greater access to these existing works. Through this acquisition, Amazon would empower MGM to continue to do what they do best: great storytelling,” reads Amazon’s press release.
MGM’s content will probably moved to Amazon Prime Video in Canada thanks to this deal, which could hurt Bell Media’s Crave, which currently carries The Handmaid’s Tale and all the Bond movies, for example. Just when will depend on timing of Bell’s contracts with MGM, which is not publicly known. However, since Crave is also a linear traditional pay-TV brand and reaches viewers Amazon Prime doesn’t, it is thought Bell could hold on to some titles for certain windows.
