MGM Agrees to Showtime Production Deal

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. agreed to provide more movies to Viacom Inc.’s Showtime Networks Inc. through 2008 and will co-produce three new television series with the company.

MGM will receive about $1.4 billion under the contract, a person familiar with negotiations said. Showtime will have exclusive pay-TV rights to all MGM movies released through 2008 and will license rights to as many as 1,200 films from MGM’s library. The agreement replaces a 1993 pact between the two companies.

Santa Monica-based MGM has more than 4,100 titles in its library, including the James Bond series, “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Graduate.”

MGM’s TV production arm and Showtime will create three original series to premiere in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Showtime also agreed to pick up 22 episodes of the science-fiction show “Stargate SG-1.”

Showtime’s cable channels include Showtime, the Movie Channel and Flix. It also operates and manages the premium network Sundance Channel, which it owns with director and actor Robert Redford and Seagram Co.’s Universal Studios.