But such deals have fallen out of fashion among some executives, as media and entertainment companies rethink how they spend their resources.

The thinking behind these mega-deals was for popular showrunners to bring in bigger audiences and help fill the platforms’ libraries with new hit shows.

But as subscriber growth on streaming services has slowed down, companies are analysing whether it is worth it to renew the deals.

“I do think these deals are going to be fewer and farther apart because there’s a lot of belt-tightening right now,” says Susanne Daniels, YouTube’s former global head of original content, who now teaches at the University of California in the US.

Daniels estimates the number of new signings of so-called overall deals will drop significantly next year.

Earlier in June, a podcasting deal between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Audio and Swedish streaming giant Spotify came to an end, after the royals’ company produced just 12 episodes of a single show in 2½ years.

Spotify executive and The Ringer founder Bill Simmons, speaking on his own podcast, called them grifters. The California-based couple still have a Netflix deal and have produced series including docuseries Harry & Meghan, Live to Lead and the coming Heart of Invictus, which will come out later this year.

Murphy, the producer behind American Horror Story and Glee, is said to be in talks for a new deal with Disney, five years after signing a deal worth up to US$300 million at Netflix.

Netflix and a representative for Murphy declined to comment. Disney did not respond to a request for comment.

The Disney deal talks are advanced but not finalised and are not expected to conclude until the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike ends, according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorised to comment.

“They had to spend a lot of money early on because they were trying to drive subscriber growth, and I think they’re in a position now where they’re watching a little bit more closely the money that they’re spending,” says Ryan Webb, a Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer at law firm Greenberg Glusker.

Netflix has said it plans to keep its content spending at around US$17 billion on average annually until the end of 2024.

While Murphy and the royals represent wildly different situations, the shuffles come as streaming services are looking at their finances amid pressure to pare costs. Many tech and entertainment companies have laid off staff and cancelled programmes.

Even big-name hit makers such as Alias creator J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot have found themselves under the microscope.

HBO last year decided not to move forward with the Bad Robot sci-fi series Demimonde because of a disagreement about the budget. Bad Robot in 2019 signed a US$250 million overall deal with what was then called WarnerMedia.

The pullback is especially acute in the podcasting industry, where some companies have struggled to make money despite the rapid growth in the number of shows produced.

Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said during an April earnings call that the company wants to avoid “overpaying” for exclusive talent in podcast deals.

“We’re going to be very diligent in how we invest in future content deals,” Ek says. “The ones that aren’t performing, obviously we won’t renew, and the ones that are performing, we will obviously look at those on a case-by-case basis on the relative value.”

While the writers’ strike and the economic environment have caused a lull in overall deals, companies have signed some major pacts recently and doubled down on existing relationships.

Netflix renewed its agreement with Shonda Rhimes in 2021 and announced an expansion of training programmes with her Shondaland production company earlier this year.

“There will always be a demand and a premium paid for talent that can deliver, especially if someone has an established track record,” says entertainment lawyer Briana Hill, a partner at law firm Pryor Cashman.