Media giants — under heavy pressure to make their streaming businesses profitable — are relying on licensing deals with Netflix, even as they compete with the company for subscribers.
Why it matters: The rush for these deals means the so-called streaming wars are effectively over, with Netflix the victor, Axios Pro Media Dealsauthor Tim Baysinger writes.
Case in point: Disney is close to a licensing deal with Netflix for 14 older series, including “This Is Us,” “Lost” and “Home Improvement,” Variety reports.
It’s a full-circle moment for the streaming era: It was Disney walking away from a major licensing pact with Netflix in 2019 that signaled studios would compete with the streaming leader. Now Disney’s back.
The big picture: The clock is ticking for media companies to start making real money off of streaming as their legacy businesses decline faster than expected.
Disney, Comcast and Paramounthave promised investors profitability by 2024 or 2025.
Warner Bros. Discovery said Max was “slightly profitable” during its most recent quarter — but not enough to make up for losses elsewhere.
Zoom in: It’s not just Disney that has resumed sharing its library with Netflix.
Warner Bros. Discovery has been licensing numerous titles to Netflix this year as it seeks to pay down its heavy debt load, including older HBO series like “Insecure” and “Six Feet Under” and even some of its newer DC catalog like 2022’s “The Batman.”
One of Netflix’s biggest shows this summer was the legal drama “Suits.” The former USA Network drama, which ran for nine seasons from 2011-2019, saw a resurgence in popularity after it debuted on Netflix in June.
It had previously been available on Peacock and Amazon Prime Video.
Is it me, or coincidence that the streams all seem to have movies I’ve seen and enjoyed-or equally matched genres-in a PPV only. Meawhile, crap movies which I would never, ever watch are available?
I agree that’s a problem. When I was home sick a couple of weeks ago, I watched (in desperation) a couple of movies I couldn’t believe anyone financed. Real dogs.
It does appear that Netflix won the overall but there are spots to make money on a smaller scale like Hallmark. Now, I don’t even watch Hallmark but it does seem to have it’s niche.
Were any of them the oh-so-obvious ripoffs of normal movies form that legendary studio “The Asylum”? You know, great titles like Atlantic Rim, Transmorphers, Top Gunner: Danger Zone, The Day The Earth Stopped, Independent’s Day, among others? OH lest I forget my favorite: “Snakes On a Train”. First time I saw that name I about died from laughter… to this day it makes me almost roar fora few minutes. FUN FACT: they actually went there… and titled a movie “MILF”.
If oyu want to read up on this gem of a studio, here’s the list of titles:
OMG I just some info I hadnt read before… THey are of course the source of the true brilliance that is the “SHARKNADO” franchise. But I hadnt read all the sequel names before:
Sharknado!
Sharknado 2: The Second One
Sharknado3: Oh Hell No!
Sharknado4: The 4th Awakens
Sharknado5: Global Swarming
The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time
Case in point: Disney is close to a licensing deal with Netflix for 14 older series, including “This Is Us,” “Lost” and “Home Improvement,” Variety reports.
The big picture: The clock is ticking for media companies to start making real money off of streaming as their legacy businesses decline faster than expected.
Zoom in: It’s not just Disney that has resumed sharing its library with Netflix.