In a surprise move Stan has just announced a multi-year deal that lets them stream a wide range of Paramount TV and movie franchises such as Star Trek, Transformers, Mission Impossible movies and The Godfather trilogy.
Some media industry commentators had been quick to claim that the upcoming launch of Disney+ in Australia would kill STAN as many customers would ditch their subscription.
Stan’s release of information about this new Paramount deal 24 hours later shows that it wants to signal that they don’t see competing against Disney+ as mission impossible, in fact they intend to live long and prosper.
With Netflix increasingly focusing on creating their own original content, this means Stan can focus on licensing new and classic well known TV shows and movies from major studios worldwide, which is quite a different content mix on offer for subscribers.
The new Paramount TV Licensing and Distribution deal expands Stan’s range of long-term agreements, which includes existing arrangements with Showtime, Starz and MGM; and cements Stan’s position as Australia’s home of premium must-see TV from both the major Hollywood studios and local production houses.
Looking For Alaska will be the first Paramount Television series to launch on Stan in mid October. Produced for Hulu, the eight-part limited series is based on the book of the same name by John Green (The Fault In Our Stars, Paper Towns) and will star Kristine Froseth (The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair) and Charlie Plummer (All The Money In The World).
Other projects currently in development from Paramount Television include Made for Love and Station Eleven for HBO Max, the Sexy Beast prequel series for Paramount Channel Network, plus the Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio murder mystery Devil in the White City and Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, both for Hulu.
“Paramount has built a fantastic slate of premium scripted television series in addition to their iconic box office blockbusters, legendary film franchises and library of classics,” said Mike Sneesby, CEO of Stan. “We’re thrilled to expand our relationship with Paramount under this new long-term output agreement as part of our ongoing commitment to bring the world’s greatest TV series and movies to Australians.”
“We are extremely pleased to continue working with Stan with this long term deal to bring some of Paramount Television’s most anticipated new shows exclusively to the service’s discriminating subscribers,” said Jonathan Greenberg, SVP Regional Sales Asia Pacific for Paramount Pictures Television Licensing & Distribution.
