Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said its Epix movie service retained the rights to two top box office champs -- The Avengers and The Hunger Games -- which could influence its upcoming renewal talks with subscription VOD service Netflix.
Speaking at the Nomura Media & Telecom conference in New York, Dauman said Epix signed a five-year deal with Netflix in 2010, and the first two years of the deal involved exclusive broadband rights for the SVOD service.
"We're in discussions about that," Dauman said. "We'll see where that goes. Epix has a particularly strong lineup considering the strength of the Paramount lineup that has been released, and we have The Hunger Games and The Avengers. When we sold the distribution rights to Disney, we retained the pay [TV] rights on Epix. We have about as strong a lineup as any pay service; in fact the strongest lineup. We're very well positioned. Epix will do well."
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