Netflix Signs New, Looser Deal With Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Media|Netflix Loosens Its Ties to Harry and Meghan

Netflix is keeping its ties to Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan. But those ties are getting looser.

The production company for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has signed a new deal with Netflix, the two companies announced Monday morning. But it’s worth less for the royals than their last arrangement with the streaming giant, a person familiar with the deal said.

Under a deal signed in 2020, Netflix paid them for the exclusive rights to content from Archewell Productions, the couple’s company. The new arrangement is a first-look deal, meaning that Netflix can say yes or no to new film or television projects before anyone else. That gives Harry and Meghan more options, but less investment from Netflix, a sign that the high-profile 2020 deal may not have met expectations.

Archewell had intended to make “inspirational family programming” in documentaries, docuseries, feature films, scripted shows and children’s television under its earlier deal. But it hasn’t made any children’s television, feature films or scripted shows.

Rather, Archewell has produced documentaries and docuseries, including “Harry & Meghan,” a show about the couple’s exodus from the Royal Palace. A six-part series directed by the filmmaker Liz Garbus and released in late 2022, the show generated 23.4 million views in its first four days, the most ever for a documentary on the service.

Three other documentary projects followed — “Heart of Invictus,” “Live to Lead” and “Polo” — though they did not generate the same large audiences. This past March, the company released “With Love, Meghan,” a cooking, gardening and hosting series starring the Duchess. The show was criticized by some as out of touch, but praised by others as a refreshingly imperfect tutorial on keeping a home.