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.
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Soooo, does that mean consumers have one less streaming service to subscribe to or would Netflix just do a price hike to make up for it?
Oh yes, market concentration definitely improves the user experience in the long run.
Probably like Disney/Hulu
They’ll try a bundle deal to see if people pay for it, then if not slowly bleed shows from one service to another.
Maybe eventually combine them but they’ll try to keep paying for both as long as possible
¿Porque no los dos?
This means the would-be buyer will pay WBD billions of dollars if the deal is not completed.
That’s critical because the biggest X factor is regulatory approval. The Trump administration will review any transaction between Netflix and WBD, and some analysts expect a political and legal battle to ensue.
We’re about to see how much Netflix wants to kiss the ring and what lines they’ll cross for Trump.
Larry Ellison also wants Warner Discovery. He’s kissed the ring so much that Trump has to wash the slobber off.
So we’ll see. Larry Ellison is the worst option here, even worse than media consolidation and price hikes, because Ellison wants to be the new Rupert Murdoch.
Yeah, I’m already done with Trek under the Ellison name.
I’ve cut off all these services already though, as an F U to the US threatening to annex my country, and virtually no Americans standing up against that.
Fuck this and fuck Zaslav
Would you rather Larry Ellison own it? Because that was the front runner for the longest time.
I’d rather it remain independent. Which should’ve happened with the Warner Discovery merger in the first place. 🤷♂️
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 Mother 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 “fuck 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…
It’s sad when this is probably the best outcome if it goes through.
Best outcome would be after the deal is final people stop using Netflix.
Not enough people give a shit for that to ever happen. Hell, my wife (as much as I love her) doesn’t care. I’ve explained and shown her how much Netflix sucks but her desire to watch crappy Korean dubs without thinking too hard about how to do so takes precedence. Never mind my mother who is too old and stubborn to ever change.
But in the very least the subscription fees aren’t coming out of my account, and that’s really all I can do.
*Sad Larry Ellison noises*
How in the ever living fuck does Netflix have the money to buy Warner Brothers? If anything you would think it would be the other way around.
Well shit. There goes my hopes of HBO eventually getting the rights to The Witcher and doing it right.
There goes my hope of hbo ever doing anything good anymore.
Yeah, awesome! Super cool. Now Netflix will have more of my favourite content. Surely, they won’t send it in a 720 slideshow then raise the prices by 1.5x because they have a greater monopoly, right? Right? Animaniacs!
Stop letting companies consolidate.
Does this mean Netflix has to pay the president of the united states of america some grifter money?
So what happens to DC Comics?
It becomes the sister company to… Millarworld
Something interesting about this, that I observed from my office desk with the ever-present CNBC broadcast I am forced to endure:
CNBC is currently platforming a lot of opposing voices to this merger. A big part of the opposition I’ve witnessed them platform is a “THIS WILL KILL THE CINEMA INDUSTRY” narrative. This argument is ridiculous to me, as HBO Max is owned by Warner-Discovery, and if you recall, they pioneered the simultaneous cinema/streaming movie release.
Additionally, the Activision-Blizzard merger was larger in every way, and yet I cannot find any negative sentiment on behalf of CNBC with regard to that merger.
ActivisionBlizzard wasn’t so much of a threat to ComcastNBCUniversal as NetflixWarnerDiscoveryHBO would be.
They should legally have to keep all their major mergers in their name. AOL-Time-Warner-Discovery-Netflix is far more representative of the nightmare times we live in.
Warner Bros-Seven Arts-Kinney-Time-AOL-AT&T-Discovery-Netflix
