Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#21

Post by dehugger » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 3:36 PM UTC

browningstreet wrote: post #7

timmg wrote: post #2

I assume they get "monetization" from Youtube and they don't need to worry about hosting or discovery. Probably better than doing nothing with these films.

I'm a little surprised there isn't more of this. Building a streaming service is pretty expensive.. a lot of the platforms lost money doing so and really only made it back when they merged into an umbrella of other services. I'm also a little surprised no one has yet (AFAIK) done the "viral indie release to Youtube" path. I feel like it's sitting there waiting to be exploited.

Kung Fury would be my go-to example of "viral indie release".

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#22

Post by ryanmcbride » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 3:37 PM UTC

wslh wrote: post #13

browningstreet wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little surprised there isn't more of this. Building a streaming service is pretty expensive.. a lot of the platforms lost money doing so and really only made it back when they merged into an umbrella of other services. I'm also a little surprised no one has yet (AFAIK) done the "viral indie release to Youtube" path. I feel like it's sitting there waiting to be exploited.

Could you please expand on your "viral indie release to Youtube" idea? I am just a YT basic user and don't know what is there and what is not beyond HN, random videos, and my relatively simple use cases (e.g. music videos, and movie trailers).

Indie film makers release a lot of their work on youtube.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#23

Post by jerf » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 3:38 PM UTC

For your searching convenience, they do seem to have all their full movies in a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Y4rNBCLaU&list=PL7Eup7JXSc...

That will pop up to The 11th Hour but the playlist has them all.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#24

Post by vintermann » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 3:38 PM UTC

My guess it's that they do it to discover what "hidden gems" actually have potential, and that they may not stay free.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#25

Post by browningstreet » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 3:38 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #15

browningstreet wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little surprised there isn't more of this. Building a streaming service is pretty expensive.. a lot of the platforms lost money doing so and really only made it back when they merged into an umbrella of other services. I'm also a little surprised no one has yet (AFAIK) done the "viral indie release to Youtube" path. I feel like it's sitting there waiting to be exploited.

I'm surprised a lot of things aren't more accessible. So much content not making money / available ANYWHERE. I assume, that maybe the amount of difficulty in terms of getting permission is too high to bother so nobody does?

I have a list of movies you can't find anywhere, not even for pay, not even on on obscure services. I check every once in a while to see if they pop up (JustWatch.us is great for this, IMDB is copying). Example: "Amateur" by Hal Hartley, though it's easy enough to buy copies on DVD.

The problem is once the rights for a title end up in a library, the accessibility considerations operate at the library level, not the title level. So if some company owns the rights to "n" titles en masse, they're negotiating for the distribution rights to that library.

You can't really pull a Taylor Swift or Def Leppard "re-record for rights" move with movies.

UPDATE: Happy to be wrong about my cited example.. Thanks @andsoitis !

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#26

Post by illwrks » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 3:39 PM UTC

browningstreet wrote: post #7

timmg wrote: post #2

I assume they get "monetization" from Youtube and they don't need to worry about hosting or discovery. Probably better than doing nothing with these films.

I'm a little surprised there isn't more of this. Building a streaming service is pretty expensive.. a lot of the platforms lost money doing so and really only made it back when they merged into an umbrella of other services. I'm also a little surprised no one has yet (AFAIK) done the "viral indie release to Youtube" path. I feel like it's sitting there waiting to be exploited.

Movie rights will be a big factor also. Events like TIFF, Cannes etc, while being a platform to show films is also where deals are done, distribution rights are signed always for different territories etc. YouTube is essentially international which may invalidate some pre-existing licence and distribution agreements.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#27

Post by browningstreet » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 3:39 PM UTC

ryanmcbride wrote: post #22

wslh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you please expand on your "viral indie release to Youtube" idea? I am just a YT basic user and don't know what is there and what is not beyond HN, random videos, and my relatively simple use cases (e.g. music videos, and movie trailers).

Indie film makers release a lot of their work on youtube.

There hasn't really been a Blair Witch Project movie happening on Youtube yet...

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#28

Post by fsflover » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 3:39 PM UTC

browningstreet wrote: post #7

timmg wrote: post #2

I assume they get "monetization" from Youtube and they don't need to worry about hosting or discovery. Probably better than doing nothing with these films.

I'm a little surprised there isn't more of this. Building a streaming service is pretty expensive.. a lot of the platforms lost money doing so and really only made it back when they merged into an umbrella of other services. I'm also a little surprised no one has yet (AFAIK) done the "viral indie release to Youtube" path. I feel like it's sitting there waiting to be exploited.

> Building a streaming service is pretty expensive..

It's not. At least not for companies of that size. There is PeerTube for that: https://joinpeertube.org/. It can even decrease the load to your servers by spreading the trafic over peers.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#29

Post by dageshi » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 3:39 PM UTC

Honestly maybe just because they can?

They have these relatively obscure movies that aren't really worth much so why not throw them on youtube and give them the best possible chance of being watched.

I think it's a great move honestly, I know a tv show from the UK that's been doing the same, hopefully more shows/movies will do it as well.

Re: Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube?

#30

Post by lxgr » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 3:40 PM UTC

Old movies have been available on various "free ad-supported streaming television" for a while now, so I'm actually more surprised it took copyright holders that long to realize that Youtube also shows ads and doesn't require people to install some wonky app that might or might not be available for their platform.

Of course, region-specific copyright deals are incredibly complex etc. etc., so I could imagine it was just a matter of waiting out until the last person putting up a veto retired or moved on to other things.