Japan: WBD, U-Next extend SVoD deal
March 7, 2023
By Nik Roseveare
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and U-Next have announced an extension of their relationship with a renewed SVoD deal. The agreement sees U-Next continue as the streaming home of HBO in Japan, bringing new and returning series, as well as more than 2,300 episodes of library content, to its subscribers.
Featuring exclusive content rights for HBO, HBO Original and HBO Max Original series, the strengthened agreement includes:
· Current and future seasons of HBO’s most-watched series in the world, including House of the Dragon, The Last of Us and Succession
· Returning HBO Original and HBO Max Original series including True Detective: Night Country, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty and And Just Like That…
· Highly anticipated HBO Original and HBO Max Original series including The Idol, White House Plumbers, and Love & Death
· Exclusive Japanese premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s Full Circle
· Extensive library of more than 2,300 episodes from HBO’s esteemed portfolio, including newly available titles such as The Deuce, The Newsroom and Six Feet Under
Tenshin Tsutsumi, CEO of U-Next, commented: “The collaboration with Warner Bros Discovery, which began in April 2021, has produced great results as a strategic partnership. We have been able to deliver high-quality titles from HBO and HBO Max, the pinnacle of US entertainment, to audiences as quickly as possible, and we feel that the number of opportunities for people to engage with our service through these titles has also increased. We will continue to add to the HBO lineup with a growing library of over 2,300 episodes, while major titles are in the pipeline.”
James Gibbons, President & MD, Western Pacific, WBD, added: “Warner Bros Discovery’s world-leading entertainment continues to be extremely popular with Japanese audiences and we are pleased to extend our partnership with U-Next which has delivered strong success to date. This renewed deal reflects our ambition to build further scale across the entire ecosystem of our business, with future optionality that enables us to reach as broad an audience as possible across multiple platforms.”