Netflix announced the blockbuster deal with Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday morning. It has agreed to buy the legendary TV and movie studio and assets like the HBO Max streaming service for $72 billion.
Netflix announced the blockbuster deal with Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday morning. It has agreed to buy the legendary TV and movie studio and assets like the HBO Max streaming service for $72 billion.
As bad as this reality is, my first thought is at least it isn’t going to Larry Ellison and Paramount. Coming from Zaslov, this seems like about the same level of terrible.
I think it’s actually worse.
I don’t see how this doesn’t lead to the removal of the HBO brand from the marketplace, and the transfer of all IP, to Netflix’s algorithm driven slop machine.
Both were shitty options, this is all speculation, but something tells me that at least HBO would have survived a Comcast or Paramount acquisition, and not been converted into whatever the hell you want to call Netflix’s category of entertainment.
I only hope is that this is killed by regulators, and somehow Paramount and Comcast aren’t able to put together new bids.
But, I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen.
My feeling is, it’s worse if we are one step closer to effective state-controlled media, but yes, all valid points
In terms of management of what content gets made? Yeah, probably about the same. A lot better than ellison where you can bet that stuff like The Pitt would have been instantly halted until they added enough scenes where the guy who beat up a nurse is shown to be the real hero and the southeast asian doctors all get deported before the shift ends.
But the zazlovian “if we cancel this we get more money than if we show it” nonsense will likely accelerate.
In terms of media quality? The best “joke” I have seen is that the new season of White Lotus is going to just be filmed on a green screen set. And… yeah. There are genuine arguments for and against that. Massively inflated budgets that more or less pay for vacations for the production team (Adam Sandler has entered the chat) are definitely bad. But there is a lot to be said about the kind of beautiful lighting and “energy” that comes from an on set. BUT you can also look at stuff like fucking How I Met Your Father that are kind of universally praised for using green screens to get iconic moments like conversations on bridges in NYC. I’ll always prefer on location-ish filming but I totally get that that may be something that is a net negative these days.
The bigger problem on the Netflix side is what this means for theatres (and… I kind of honestly lean on the side of “fuck 'em” but understand they serve a purpose) and the price of streaming services in general. The best case scenario is increasingly looking like Netflix effectively becoming Cable where you have a base package and then pick what networks/studios you want on top of that. Which, to be fair, is what we already see with Disney and ESPN on Hulu or whatever. But… prices are going up regardless.
Also, it is still a bit murky as to exactly what is and isn’t in this deal. My understanding is that WBD studios and productions are but the network channels aren’t. So ellison is still likely to own CNN by 2027. But Netflix will likely be John Oliver’s new Business Daddy (although I increasingly suspect LWT is planning to go independent).
And… as a wrestling sicko, things look real bleak. TNT/TBS will likely go to ellison. But AEW’s streaming contract (not sure if it expires in that timeframe) is potentially going to be owned by Netflix who already do streaming for wwe/ufc. And… pretty sure the super horny super gay wrestling show where the World Men’s Champion gets out and cuts a promo in high school Spanish while the coolest male tag team come out in “abolish ICE” clothing are going to get killed in favor of the promotion putting pyramid power on their turnbuckles and constantly making sure no black man can ever be successful under HH Helmseley.
It is REAL fucked that fucking Comcast was probably the best outcome for all this…