From Jurassic Park to Despicable Me, Baidu-backed iQiyi feeds China’s growing appetite for online video content with new NBCUniversal deal
Subsidiary of nation’s top search engine gets access to ‘hundreds’ of Universal’s existing and upcoming movie titles
One of China’s largest video-streaming companies iQiyi signed a content agreement with NBCUniversal on Thursday to cater to growing domestic demand for online video at a time when foreign TV shows like Downton Abbey and Sherlock are proving runaway successes in the country.
This enlarges on a pre-existing content deal between the two parties and gives iQiyi, a subsidiary of China’s top search engine Baidu, access to more popular American film franchises like the Jurassic Park and Fast and Furious movies.
Under the terms of the agreement, the entertainment portal will expand its digital rights to include Universal Picture’s existing titles, as well as all of the US studio’s upcoming titles to be released in China over the next few years, it said.
“Nearly all of the most famous titles are in this library,” the person added, pointing to films like The Bourne Identity, about a super spy who loses his memory, and the computer-animated Despicable Me series.
iQiyi signed a separate content deal with another Hollywood studio, Lionsgate, earlier this month and secured streaming rights for numerous titles including the highly anticipated Hunger Games finale.