The deal would bring more premium content to YouTube as the company stuggles to get content on its GoogleTV.
The NYPost is reporting this morning that Google (GOOG) is in a battle with Netflix to obtain the rights to the Miramax digital catalog. Disney is in the latter stages of finalizing a sale of Miramax to Filmyard, run by Hollywood entrepreneur Ron Tutor and construction magnate Tom Barr. Filmyard isn’t wasting any time and is already in negotiations with Google and supposedly Netflix (NFLX) for rights to the Miramax library. At stake are the rights to…
…more than 700 films such as “Kill Bill,” “Pulp Fiction,” and “No Country For Old Men,” as well as the Miramax name, and is expected to close by Dec. 10. Sources said Google is eyeing the film rights to bolster its efforts to turn YouTube into a Web destination for longer form content, although Google may have to do battle with Netflix, which has also shown an interest in Miramax’s film library. Google hired former Netflix executive Robert Kyncl in September as vice president of content partnerships to spearhead its efforts in Hollywood.
As television networks continue to drop off the GoogleTV platform, Google is scrambling to find premium content wherever it can. GoogleTV already has rights to much of Sony’s (SNE) content via Crackle and is signing up more and more content by the day.
Hollywood is hoping to see a bidding war between Netflix, who has already invested Billions, and Google for the top content.