Pay 1 Isn't Dead (Part 1) - Black Content Licensing
- Gato Scatena
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Every time someone says Pay 1 is dead, I know exactly what they mean — and exactly why they’re wrong. These licensees have simply carved out specific lanes. The lane we're talking about here is black content. So where are these selling?
What is dead is the old fantasy version of Pay 1. The one where a single North American license quietly solved your financing problems, where “SVOD” meant one buyer with a big check and a vague marketing promise, and where prestige alone could carry a film across the finish line.
That market collapsed. But another one quietly hardened underneath it.
Right now, the most consistent North American licensing activity in the Pay 1 / premium-adjacent space is happening inside highly specific audience mandates, and Black-focused platforms are among the few places where the mandate hasn’t wavered — it’s simply gotten sharper. These buyers didn’t disappear. They just stopped pretending they were everything platforms.
Starz is the easiest public example. They’ve made no secret of the fact that they’re leaning into audiences that actually show up, stick around, and identify with the brand — particularly Black audiences — while shedding the idea that scale alone is the goal. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, free platforms like Tubi have demonstrated that younger and multicultural audiences don’t just exist, they over-index, especially when the content isn’t trying to lecture them.
That’s the throughline here. Black audiences are still being programmed for — aggressively — but only when the content understands what it’s there to do. If your project still thinks the pitch is “important,” “timely,” or “award-worthy,” you’re already out of step. These buyers are thinking in terms of retention, tone, velocity, and cultural specificity.
And that’s where most filmmakers — and frankly, a lot of sales agents — keep missing the turn.