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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: 1) by jonathan on Saturday July 13 2019, @11:32AM (4 children)
While I think it will not help Netflix. I suspect people will not jump to Warner's streaming service to see Friends. People flocked to Netflix because it had so much content and ended up running Friends since it happened to be there. Some will cancel when this show and others are gone, no doubt about it. But many will probably find other content to watch. It might help Netflix's original content get more views. I'm sure Netflix is banking on this which is why they have been ramping up the creation of their shows but unless the original content is really awful, I suspect Netflix's losses won't be the big gain of the other services particularly when there are so many slices of pie out there.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @12:15PM (1 child)
Why would I pay more money for other services? I have friends with two or three and sometimes four services. They are spending over $50 a month just to keep people in their household happy. Most of them are switching to a vendor per month model. This month is Netflix. Next month will be Stan. It's like switching TV stations.
A friend told her kids that if they didn't like it then they could pay. They never have.
(Score: 1) by jonathan on Saturday July 13 2019, @12:41PM
Yeah and then see most subscription services go to a yearly model and making sure their buddies (other Hollywood studios) all adopt this way to lockout most content. Just a thought I had.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 13 2019, @03:10PM (1 child)
I see no particular reason to watch Friends on a streaming service. Isn't it typically on demand on virtually all cable systems at this point? It's kind of a comfort food sort of a thing where people mostly watch it because they've gotten used to watching it due to it's ubiquity.
At this point, I'm not sure when the next time I'll turn on Friends is as I've seen the episodes worth seeing far too many times as it is. And it seems like each time I watch it, I realize more and more just how unrelatable the characters are.
(Score: 1) by jonathan on Saturday July 13 2019, @07:11PM
That's your point of view but is also irrelevant. The article points out that the show is number one on Netflix and you seems to forget that a lot of people on Netflix are cord-cutters who don't have cable services.