Amazon, NBCUniversal, Fanatics and eBay are all moving the same way. Licensing's dealmaking process has to catch up.
The broken vector
Here's how many licensed products still come to life:
A retail buyer asks a licensee to chase a specific IP. Sometimes the ask is backed by data. Often it rests on a hunch, a trend spotted secondhand, or a personal favorite. Ask anyone in licensing and they'll tell you the name for it: "buyer bias."
Then the licensee goes to work. They track down the right person at the licensor, open the conversation, and clear the rights in their category. That alone can take months.
By the time the deal is signed, the commercial intent that started it has often fizzled. The buyer has moved on, the trend has cooled, and the request is no longer relevant. Even then, product typically needs around six more months to reach shelf.
This isn't a knock on buyers. They're asked to make high-stakes bets with little data on what fans actually want. The real problem is a process that runs in one direction, starts from a single opinion, and moves slower than demand.
That gap is closing fast. The biggest IP owners and platforms in the world are building new ways to measure demand directly, and they are doing it at the exact moment fans discover the product.
Studios are turning screens into storefronts
Amazon: Shop the Show goes from 1,300 to 8,000+ titles
In September, Amazon expanded Prime Video's Shop the Show from 1,300 titles to more than 8,000 in the US, covering Prime Originals, licensed titles and live sports. A new Shop tab sits inside X-Ray, right next to Cast, Trivia and Music. A feature called Shop the Scene uses Amazon Lens to identify products tied to characters' outfits and home decor as they appear on screen. (Amazon)
Remember: Amazon is a retailer. Every viewer it sends from Prime Video to the Amazon app becomes a data point on what sells, for which IP, at which moment in the story. That is why this matters so much for Amazon, and why it matters for licensing.
Studios aren't escaping gatekeepers. They're adding gatekeepers that run on data instead of opinion and gaining control.
NBCUniversal: Shoppable TV built on IP
NBCUniversal has spent seven years building Shoppable TV across Peacock and partners like LG TVs, and now runs it across roughly 12 shows. The company says the business is growing significantly year over year. (Modern Retail)
Two findings that should stand out for anyone in licensing:
- IP is the driver: NBCU says engagement and buying climb when shopping is tied to the shows fans care about, and in-show integrations get 3X the engagement of a standard ad.
- Speed sells: For The Traitors, NBCU turns a viral moment into a shirt, hat or mug the following week. Love Island USA fans can buy the monogrammed water bottle straight from the villa.
That second point is the real lesson... When a studio can see demand spike in real time and get product to market in days, the old calendar of line reviews and seasonal resets can't keep up.
Collectibles: whoever owns the marketplace owns the data
Collectibles show where this goes when the stakes are high. The Marketplaces goal isn't only about product, owning the transaction, and the data that comes with it...
It's about anticipating and riding the TREND wave before it peaks.
How are the winners setting themselves up for success?
Fanatics bought The Topps Company in 2022 and PWCC in 2023, then rebuilt PWCC as Fanatics Collect, a marketplace with grading, vaulting, fixed-price listings and auctions. eBay acquired Goldin, pairing its high-volume memorabilia business with Goldin's high-end auctions. (Front Office Sports, Retail TouchPoints)
Why spend that kind of money? Because the marketplace shows what fans actually WANT and then willing to PAY for... which property, in which condition, in real time.
A licensor that owns that view doesn't need to guess what the next drop should be.
India: where the marketplace is the shelf
In some territories, this isn't a strategy choice. It's the only route to the consumer.
India's licensing market grew up with a familiar problem. Licensees there have described going entirely on the whims of purchase heads at large-format chains, while unorganized retail meant what reached consumers depended on distributors, not on trends. (Indian Retailer) That's buyer bias at national scale.
Marketplaces filled the gap. Meesho, built for price-sensitive shoppers in smaller cities, grew net merchandise value 44% year over year in the half-year before its December 2025 IPO. (Yahoo Finance) Flipkart has even tried positioning itself as a licensing platform, connecting global brands directly with Indian sellers.
For brands entering markets like this, online and on-demand fulfillment aren't add-ons. They are the infrastructure.
What this means for every seat at the table
The common thread across Amazon, NBCU, Fanatics, eBay and territories like India: demand is being measured, not guessed. Each side of the deal has to adjust.
Licensors: B&M Retail still matters, but it can't be the only bet. The winning programs will build complementary strategies where content, marketplaces and shelf feed each other, each with its own role and its own data.
Traditional licensees: If your product can't plug into DTC sites, shoppable feeds and marketplace listings quickly, you're invisible at the moment of discovery. Feeding these channels is now part of the job, not a side project.
Print-on-demand and on-demand manufacturers: Moment-driven merch needs speed nobody else has. The NBCU's Shoppable Traitors model, a viral moment one week and on sale the next, is your opening to scale beyond novelty into core programs.
Retail buyers: This works in your favor. Sell-through data from these channels is the strongest case a licensee can bring to a line review. Less guessing means fewer markdowns and better bets on shelf.
Reverse engineering the deal
There's no room left for gut-call licensing. Who gets the deal, which product gets made, and which shelf it lands on, online and offline, should all start from demand data, not end with it.
Today the vector runs one way: a buyer's hunch, a licensee's chase, months of rights clearance, then six more months to shelf, by which point demand has often moved on.
At Negosh, we're building the infrastructure and mining the data that will support the relationships evolve the dealmaking process.
We start with what viewers, fans and retailers are actually signaling, and work backward to the right licensee, the right product and the right placement. Our AI-powered matchmaking connects licensors with licensees based on fit and data, not just relationships and timing.
Bias doesn't disappear on its own. You replace it with better information.
Are studios moving fast enough, or is retail still the default bet? We'd like to hear how your team is rethinking the mix.