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from the pray-I-do-not-alter-it-any-further dept.
It's difficult to imagine that Friends, a show that ended 15 years ago, could be of any real importance to a modern streaming giant like Netflix.
In fact the sitcom, which features a bunch of 20-somethings living together in a time before streaming was even invented, is US Netflix's second-most watched show.
Today, Netflix announced that it's poised to lose its rights to broadcast the series to its original parent company, Warner, which plans to launch its own streaming service, HBO Max in the first quarter of 2020.
The blow follows another announcement in June that Netflix's number one series, the US version of The Office, is also being snatched back by its creators, NBCUniversal, to be broadcast exclusively in the US on its own yet-to-be-launched streaming service.
Old media, analysts are noting with no small amount of surprise, is suddenly bringing the fight to Netflix, and it looks like Netflix could be the one that gets knocked out, or at least very knocked around.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 13 2019, @11:26AM (13 children)
https://www.vulture.com/2019/06/the-office-leaving-netflix-2021.html [vulture.com]
I'm not clear on who NBCUniversal is actually paying for The Office streaming rights. Themselves? But whatever the case, maybe it wasn't worth the $450 million Netflix was prepared to pay.
Lots of people are streaming The Office on Netflix right now, and it will remain available there until January 2021. Its popularity will probably wane in a year and a half.
The NBCUniversal service will compete against Netflix, Amazon, Hulu (33% owned by NBCUniversal), Disney+, Apple, GooTube, Warner/AT&T/HBOMax (Friends), and others. Netflix has a good chance of sticking around, and they can fund a lot of original content (e.g. Stranger Things) for that $450 million they were prepared to give up. Will anyone use the NBCUniversal service? That remains to be seen. If that $500 million actually leaked out of their pockets, will they even make it back in ads/subscriptions?
Which is worse: Friends or Big Bang Theory?
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by mmcmonster on Saturday July 13 2019, @11:37AM (7 children)
I think we have it backwards.
1. A lot of people have Netflix.
2. People log onto Netflix and look for something to watch. Because of the paradox of choice, they look for something familiar. They see Friends or Office or Big Bang Theory and play it because it's easy and familiar. There's probably 30 other series that can fill that void.
What Netflix should be doing is creating their own 24 minute formula comedies to fill the gap and advertise the hell out of them. If they get a couple to stick, they're golden. And they have the money to do it.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 13 2019, @12:15PM (5 children)
Yeah, that's a good point. Original content is cheaper to make than blowing hundreds of millions on rights. Of course, even if you can make 20 new comedies for the price of that Office rent, there's no guarantee any of them will be watchable (which could impact subscriptions). But Netflix has lured big name actors and directors for buzz factor and proven willing (along with others, like Amazon, AMC, etc.) to offer more creative freedom than in the past.
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(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @01:43PM (4 children)
Yesterday I found several shows on Netflix that could be worth watching. Tonight we'll start with Happy! [netflix.com] "A boozy ex-cop turned hit man thinks he's losing his marbles when a cartoon unicorn only he can see urges him to rescue a girl kidnapped by Santa." maybe rewatch Russian Doll [netflix.com]. They recently added Neon Genesis Evangelion. I've been meaning to watch Eva for ages. It could be a while before I'd need to go elsewhere. I never signed up for HBO for GoT, a friend gifted me the DVD set for xmas. I can easily see a couple of months of shows to watch on Netflix, so we're all good for now. I'd love to watch old movies from the 70s, 80s and 90s.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday July 13 2019, @02:43PM (1 child)
I follow Netflix and Crunchyroll.
"Violet Evergarden" was available on both services.
But on Netflix the subtitles were too small to read comfortably.
On Crunchyroll they were of adequate size.
I do not understand Japanese; the English subtitles are a must for me.
There's more than which shows a service provides that determines which service I use.
-- hendrik
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 14 2019, @07:31AM
Same. The first season of Saiki [wikipedia.org] was excellent, but I've put watching the second and third on hold due to lack of subtitles.
I usually multitask while watching anime so with subtitles I miss half of it.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 13 2019, @04:05PM
I heard Netflix trashed up that dub:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/25/netflix-evangelion-changes [ign.com]
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(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday July 13 2019, @07:38PM
Happy is great. It's so gritty it's grit has grit on it. Can't watch it with the kids though...
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @03:07PM
It's not because of the Paradox of choice, it's because Netflix still has a shitty UI that makes it hard to find anything that they haven't chosen to display prominently. If something isn't one of the dozen or 2 things that are shown under the few categories they display, your likelihood of knowing it's there is very low.
It's a problem that's almost as big as the problem they have with their rapidly diminishing catalog of TV and movies. There's not much point to having a large catalog if nobody can find what they want.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @11:38AM (4 children)
Normie tier GenX "comedy" with gay jokes.
Millennial ""comedy""
Some questions don't need answering but BBT is utter garbage.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday July 13 2019, @12:10PM
BBT, aka Nerd Blackface.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by acid andy on Saturday July 13 2019, @01:51PM
Agreed. Friends is basically normies trying to be interesting, but mostly only interesting to other normies. One character is supposed to be a nerd, but for some reason they think the occasional one liner about dinosaurs is enough for that.
Big Bang Theory on the other hand is basically for geeks to make fun of nerd stereotypes. takyon's nailed it.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @03:52PM (1 child)
They make jokes about gays, or the jokes are really gay?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 14 2019, @01:15AM
both! [youtube.com]