EXCLUSIVE: Australia‘s Stan has landed several buzzy LA Screenings titles after striking a multi-year extension to its pact with Sony Pictures Television (SPT).
The Aussie streamer will get first-runs on Outlander: Blood of My Blood, comedy-drama series The Miniature Wife and Jon Hamm drama American Hostage. Outlander, the new spinoff of the popular Starz series, will launch on August 9.
Also included are rights to Sony library shows such as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Nanny, The Good Doctor and Dawson’s Creek. Stan already offers SPT series such as Twisted Metal, Red Eye and This City is Ours.
From the film side are the likes of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Where the Crawdads Sing, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Anyone But You.
Stan and SPT have had a long-standing strategic content agreement in place, which gives the Australian streaming service Hollywood firepower to compete against the likes of Netflix, Binge, Paramount+, Prime Video and HBO Max, the latter of which we hear has made a strong start in Australia after launching there in March.
The deal is also one of the most significant Stan has struck since its parent company, Nine Entertainment, said goodbye to CEO Martin Kugeler and Chief Marketing Officer Liana Dubois, who both exited in January. Former Foxtel exec Amanda Laing was subsequently named Managing Director of Streaming and Broadcast at Nine Entertainment.
“Stan’s multi-year partnership with Sony Pictures Television ensures we continue to bring exclusive premium content from around the globe to our subscribers,” said Laing. “As Australia’s only locally owned and operated premium streaming service, we’re proud to work with world-class partners like Sony to deliver compelling, first-run series that resonate with our audiences.
“From Outlander: Blood of my Blood to Breaking Bad, Sony is a leader in exceptional storytelling and has long been a valued and important partner of Stan. This agreement further strengthens our slate and reinforces our commitment to providing Australians with access to the best entertainment, right here at home.”
As for SPT, the deal comes after it launched Outlander: Blood of My Blood, The Miniature Wife and American Hostage as part of its LA Screenings slate last month. That event was the first the Culver City studio ran under new Co-Presidents of Distribution and Networks, Jason Spivak and Mike Wald.
Among the buzz titles was the new Outlander spinoff, which is for Starz and has Hermione Cornfield, Jeremy Irvine, Harriet Slater and Jamie Roy in the lead roles. The series follows the love story of two couples: Julia Moriston (Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Irvine) as well as Ellen MacKenzie (Slater) and Brian Fraser (Roy), the parents of lead couple Claire and Jamie from the original Outlander.
“Through our decade-long strategic alliance with Stan, the platform has been able to deliver Sony Pictures’ premium entertainment to viewers,” said SPT VP of Distribution Adam Herr. “We are committed to this fruitful collaboration and look forward to bringing audiences more world-class storytelling and what we believe will be one of the most talked-about series launches Australia has seen in years.”
Sony Pictures’ Co-Heads of Distribution, Australia and New Zealand, Carolyn Ozkoseoglu and Julia Salter, added the agreement would support Stan’s “ambition to bring Australian audiences some of the most compelling scripted content coming out of the U.S. right now.”
