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Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

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Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#151

Post by lotsofpulp »

troupo wrote: post #65
lotsofpulp wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure their shareholders care. Their market cap is at pre 2019 levels. Their earnings are back to 2014 levels. https://companiesmarketcap.com/walt-disney/earnings/ Meanwhile, Netflix is up $300B since 2019. And Netflix’s earnings are about to surpass Disney’s: https://companiesmarketcap.com/netflix/earnings/ And Netflix has 13,000 employees, while Disney has 233,000.

> And Netflix has 13,000 employees, while Disney has 233,000. And Disney is significantly more than just a single streaming service struggling to get content. Their Direct-to-Consumer business (aka Netflix equivalent) posted a net profit increase 9.5x year on year (from 143 million to 1.3 billion) and has more than half the number of Netflix subscribers (196 million vs. 300+ million) in significantly shorter time tha…

Operating profit, not net profit. Net income (or profit or earnings) can only be calculated for the whole business.

> has more than half the number of Netflix subscribers (196 million vs. 300+ million) in significantly shorter time than Netflix.

I don’t find this impressive. Streaming has been the future for over a decade, and Disney has long had more, and more popular content than Netflix. So why is it taking them so long to catch up to Netflix? They should have surpassed Netflix a long time ago.

Disney even sells sports.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#152

Post by lotsofpulp »

pirates wrote: post #10
echelon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HBO is destination television - it's the taste that Netflix lacks and so desperately needs. WB and HBO together have the franchises that Netflix has been trying to build. DC, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings (film + game rights - tv rights), West World, The Matrix, Mad Max, King Kong, all of Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. What does Paramount or Hulu have? It's a lot of fluff on the same or even lower…

Paramount/NBC/Peacock/Fox/ESPN have live sports, which are the only thing left worth paying for, everything else can be skipped or pirated.

If anything, the gambling ads interspersed with sports can be skipped or pirated.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#153

Post by steveBK123 »

expedition32 wrote: post #146
steveBK123 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further theres been directors that comment on how aggressively NFLX manages them to create lowest-common-denominator type format. One was talking about getting notes back saying "the show needs to be easy enough to follow that someone across the room washing the dishes understands whats going on. It's why theres no subtext in shows anymore, and they hit you over the head repeatedly with obviousness. So while TikTok l…

We have had 20 years of comic book movies and endless sequels from the major studios. Let's not pretend that James "Avatar" Cameron is deep.

I mean compare: Dune, The Last of Us, Industry, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Succession, Silicon Valley, Westworld, Eastbound & Down, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Oz, etc.. to any NFLX original programming.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#154

Post by lotsofpulp »

xrd wrote: post #137

I went to a concert last night and wore a T-shirt I made that said "Fuck Warner Bros." The band was j*Davey. Warner Bros signed them over fifteen years ago and then shoved them into a box. The show last night, fortunately for me, was only about 300 people, but it should have been 10,000. Prince was a fan. They birthed an entire category of LA artists like Thursday Thundercat, Syd, Flying Lotus (those artists say that…

Warner Bros video production business and Warner Music Group have been separate businesses since 2004.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#155

Post by lotsofpulp »

mrweasel wrote: post #76
bluehatbrit wrote: post #74

Great for shareholders, terrible for consumers. This is what we get when we allow rampant consolidation and throw out the idea of regulated competition.

It's not like there's really any competition anyway. Prices are going up, I can't switch from Netflix to HBO, because the content is available across platforms. If Netflix just moves the HBO content to Netflix then that's one subscription less for a lot of people, so even if Netflix subscription goes up, many will still save money.

There is more competition than ever. That is why these legacy companies are being bought and sold.

Amazon/Apple/Comcast/Disney/Netflix/Oracle are all in the business of selling video, plus they are competing for attention with Youtube/Tiktok/Reddit/HN/etc.

There is also Sony and Lionsgate and A24 not selling direct to customers.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#156

Post by TylerE »

criddell wrote: post #128
the_other wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, here in the UK, the cinema/theatre business killed itself. Cinemas are horrible places to visit: - they smell bad (stale junk food) - they have oppressive lighting (mostly extremely dark but with garish turquoise and pink dazzle, accentuating the most confusing aspects of their architecture) - the sound systems are thunderously loud (I'll be taking earplugs the next time I go to one) - most of them are…

There are lots of great theaters where I lived (Austin, TX) that are well maintained and have great food and drink. My problem is other people. People can’t make it more than about 15 minutes before they check their phone and start scrolling. Or if they aren’t checking their phone they are still using the screen like a flashlight to see the menu or their food. Or they eat like a noisy animal. The worst is people with…

The one model I can maybe see working is one where you have a bunch of mini-theaters that seat maybe 10-20 people max. Each group gets their own theater showing what they want, timed perfectly to where they enter.

Basically renting a really kick ass home theater that happens to access to the latest releases.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#157

Post by troupo »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #151
troupo wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And Netflix has 13,000 employees, while Disney has 233,000. And Disney is significantly more than just a single streaming service struggling to get content. Their Direct-to-Consumer business (aka Netflix equivalent) posted a net profit increase 9.5x year on year (from 143 million to 1.3 billion) and has more than half the number of Netflix subscribers (196 million vs. 300+ million) in significantly shorter time tha…

Operating profit, not net profit. Net income (or profit or earnings) can only be calculated for the whole business. > has more than half the number of Netflix subscribers (196 million vs. 300+ million) in significantly shorter time than Netflix. I don’t find this impressive. Streaming has been the future for over a decade, and Disney has long had more, and more popular content than Netflix. So why is it taking them s…

> Streaming has been the future for over a decade, and Disney has long had more, and more popular content than Netflix. So why is it taking them so long to catch up to Netflix?

Netflix started streaming 18 years ago. Disney+ appeared 6 years ago, and Disney didn't acquire Hulu (as part of 20th Century Fox) until 2019. Also, Disney+ appeared in the era of multiple streaming services, and IIRC didn't pull their content from Netflix until sometime after they launched Disney+. Netflix also didn't lose content from other big content distributors like WB until later.

To compare: in near-absence of any competition it took Netflix until 2021 (10 years) to reach 200 million subscribers. There's Hulu that was launched in 2007, but they were nearly absent outside of the US.

So Disney has streaming competition on all fronts, has gone through price increases etc., and still grows their streaming service.

---

Netflix buying WB is not really a desperation move, but it is a question of survival. Netflix has very little content of its own, and has trouble licensing relevant content from studios that are now its direct rivals: Disney, WB, Paramount etc.

They were all happily presented on Netflix, and then pulled nearly all their content to launch their own streaming platforms.

Netflix has survived by dumping enormous amounts of money into producing their own content, and licensing foreign content. But that is clearly not enough to maintain momentum, or to keep subscribers interested in the service. With WB they get their hands on a lot of IP that they can inject back into the service.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#158

Post by brindy »

black3r wrote: post #133
brindy wrote: post #93

The thinking in the comments here seems very US-centric (as usual). Until recently watching HBO in the UK and Europe was not easy unless you’re prepared to watch it on Sky (in the uk anyway) so there’s money on the table for Netflix here in the form of eating some of Sky’s share. (HBO Max is coming to EU in Jan and UK sometime next year finally) Secondarily adding HBO gives Netflix the opportunity to upgrade its prod…

> HBO Max is coming to EU in Jan and UK sometime next year finally This is a very misleading sentence. HBO Max has been available in 14/27 EU countries since 2022, and by now it's available in 22/27 EU countries, 4 of the remaining ones are covered by Sky, with which they signed an exclusive distribution agreement valid until 2025 back in 2019 - even before HBO Max was launched in the USA.

Thanks for the correction - wasn’t my intent to mislead

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#159

Post by another_twist »

piva00 wrote: post #82
another_twist wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trash ? The Diplomat has as good a production value as any. So does Bridgerton. Adolescence is basically a single shot marvel. Others - Stranger Things, Money Heist, Black Doves. Not to mention their true crime documentaries. Warner Brothers makes quality content. I think this is an almost perfect fit.

Production is good but not great, The Diplomat is quite melodramatic going too much into soap opera territory. Money Heist is completely a soap opera. Not saying that those aren't good productions but they aren't on par with what HBO used to deliver (True Detective, The Wire, Sopranos, etc.), notwithstanding the leap of faiths HBO take sometimes with stuff like The Rehearsal, and How To With John Wilson. Netflix is v…

True that and you left Succession off the list :).

Thats why I think its a good addition. Its a step up from their usual quality. They are anyways paying 72B for the company. Netflix has distribution and Warner Bros delivers quality. I think its a perfect fit. I mean imagine Warner getting acquired by Amazon and folded into prime video - that thing where search returns episode names rather than the series. That would be like Rolexes being sold at the local Walmart. There's only two homes for quality content and thats Apple TV and Netflix. Thats why I think its a good deal.

Re: Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

#160

Post by jkmcf »

Lots of complaints about Netflix, but for the money, combined with Prime, I only miss affordable NHL, which is split between too many providers.

I agree that I wish Netflix had less lowbrow content, but they target a wide audience, and let's be honest, most people willing watch crap.

And seriously: go for a walk, read a book, play a game, or work on a hobby? TV shouldn't be your life, and it's long been one of the big societal problems.

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