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posted by
martyb
on Wednesday September 18 2019, @10:06AM
from the obviously,-Sheldon-Cooper-was-the-better-negotiator dept.
from the obviously,-Sheldon-Cooper-was-the-better-negotiator dept.
Just one day after Netflix secured the streaming rights to Seinfeld in a deal reportedly worth more than $500 million, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max has gone one step further, acquiring the rights to The Big Bang Theory in a deal reportedly worth more than $1 billion.
The deal gives WarnerMedia’s HBO Max the exclusive domestic streaming rights for five years, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That means another streaming service could carry the show in global markets. The deal also extends the syndication deal between Warner Bros. Television and TBS through 2028.
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HBO Pays Over $1 Billion for "The Big Bang Theory" Streaming Rights
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TAPPING? You POLITICIANS! Don't you realize that the END of the "Wash
Cycle" is a TREASURED MOMENT for most people?!
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday September 18 2019, @10:57AM (28 children)
Good for them, then.
I'm sooo not interested in BigBang theory or Friends that I couldn't care less.
Personally, I don't get how is this worthy of a story, but then again it may be only me seeing the things this way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday September 18 2019, @11:14AM (13 children)
You can imagine the execs "Fine, you don't want to pay $100 for cable channels you almost entirely don't want... well... we'll let you pay for ten $15 streaming services instead"
Also I'm not sure the middlemen are providing a useful service anymore... pretty close to being the case where it'll be cheaper and more convenient to pay the studios directly. In the old days in the 80s setting up a network meant buying microwave relay towers and satellite BW and early exotic fiber tech and crazy expensive capitalist stuff where middlemen made sense. Now a days a middleman can be replaced by a small expensive shell script generating a RSS feed or something like that, which is why we have WAY too many middlemen right now, soon to mostly disappear.
Also on a tangent, both those shows suck and exist mostly so dudes can watch ultra soft core PG-ish pr0n with their wimmens without her complaining (mostly). Like those reality TV game shows that boil down to "lets watch hot 20-something women in bikinis for an hour". The problem with that business model is in the 70s you could get millions to watch braless "Threes Company" sitcoms because it was that or the Gimbels Department Store Womens Lingerie Catalog, but now a days dudes just pick up the phone and browse the pr0n subreddits or 80 bazillion online pr0n sites. Why watch a shitty modern version of "Threes company" when you can watch a threesome on pr0nhub? So bye bye mass media and their streaming services. Can you really sell a billion bucks of ads based on Penny's boobs (or whatever her name is)? I mean they're nice, but not a billion bucks nice...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 18 2019, @11:35AM (2 children)
FTFY
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday September 18 2019, @12:05PM (1 child)
Admittedly, some stuff out there is getting pretty propagandistic and I could see going "PBS" and simply accepting PAC contributions while ignoring audience input could be the future...
Like in the paper publishing industry, theres a fine line between an advertising funded magazine full of complementary copy, and a mere catalog containing some editorial content. Like the ole playboy lingerie issue vs the ole victorias secret catalog...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 18 2019, @06:17PM
I was more suggesting folks would either say "fuck copyright" or "fuck watching it at all".
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 18 2019, @11:44AM (4 children)
Nobody I know subscribes to them all. Most people pick a total of 2 or 3. After a few months - once you have binged everything you care about on service B or C, you drop that one and pick up service D or E for a few months. Lather, rince, repeat.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 18 2019, @12:03PM (3 children)
Doesn't customer service shit all over them at cancellation time, like cable or satellite radio services? I donno if I'm willing to spend three hours arguing on the phone with some dude in India named "Bob" just to watch crappy sitcoms for three months.
I mean, its not impossible, but does sound implausible.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Fnord666 on Wednesday September 18 2019, @12:44PM (1 child)
That's what throwaway IDs and prepaid debit cards are for.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 18 2019, @06:17PM
Preach on, brother!
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday September 18 2019, @09:25PM
No.
I just cancelled a streaming service last month (the kids and I are going through the Marvel movies, and they're all being pulled from that streamer in advance of Disney+). I went into "My Account", clicked "Cancel", clicked "Yes, I'm sure" and I was done.
I guess this is the upside of the gutting of call centres. But I also think that the streamers realise that people are going to have to come and go as more services arrive. If you can make it easy to unsubscribe, you're more likely to have someone come back later than if you made their lives hell by clinging on to them.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 18 2019, @12:58PM (1 child)
No need for those either. There are a couple of public services that broadcast for my entire need of movies, paid from taxes and (one, the SBS) a modicum of ads.
That's enough for me most of the time. For anything else, there's the movie theater, especially the independent [cinemanova.com.au] ones [rooftopcinema.com.au]
I almost liked the first season of BBTheory. Didn't want to watch it again when it came out on disc, wasn't interested to watch from season 2 onwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 18 2019, @02:23PM
The Pirate Bay is still broadcasting from wherever the hell they do their thing. They may be "illegal" in every nation on earth, but you can't stop the signal, Mal!!
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday September 18 2019, @02:23PM
So I need HBO Streaming for Big Bang, CBS Online for Star Trek: Discovery, Netflix for Orange is the New Black, and Amazon Prime for Carnival Row....
... The new middleman will be the one who works out a deal for a multi-pass using one logon and/or portal for all these services for just less than you'd pay individually for a huge streaming platform. In other words, new on-demand cable. (My Comcast box already allows me to do Netflix and YouTube, and not sure about the others....)
"Middleman" is just a term for someone who sits in between and either adds value or serves as a gatekeeper. They have always existed, even before television and radios were things, and it wouldn't surprise me if it is pre-Gutenberg as well. (Someone who buys feathers and/or birds and warehouses the feathers for selling en masse to copyist houses). They always will.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 18 2019, @02:38PM
Or, you know, do something with your life that doesn't involve laying on a couch passively consuming an AV stream...
$1B for 5 years of domestic streaming rights (to a population of 350M, with 54M subscribed... https://www.statista.com/statistics/329288/number-of-hbo-domestic-subscribers/ [statista.com] ) 200M per year, ~$4 per subscriber per year, for one show.
Last time I had HBO was when I bought a house where the previous owners had HBO and the cable company didn't get around to turning it off for 3 months... that was 1992, and I don't miss it at all. I guess I tried a free trial of HBO go once, watched about 2 shows and dropped it too.
But - for all the people bitching that CERN or NASA or your local animal shelters could use the money better, it's all about the numbers, baby... 54 million domestic subscribers @ $15/mo is nearly $10B per year, domestic. The people have spoken. If 54 million people would donate even $4 per year to your favorite cause (that's one Starbuck's latte, per year...) your cause, too, would get this kind of funding. Instead, they chose to send their money to the people who give them the Big Bang Bundle.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday September 18 2019, @11:47PM
Wow!
That Soft-Core Porn Theory* is awesome. I mean it's a little mad, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.
I had never thought of it before, but it kind of makes sense in a twisted sort of way. I don't actually find the actress who plays Penny particularly attractive, and certainly would not pay money to see her naked, but I am sure there are people who would.
* See what I did there?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 18 2019, @01:01PM (5 children)
The story could be irrelevant to you if you just generally don't care about TV. If you care about consuming this type of content, even if not those specific shows, it's probably relevant. HBO also has the exclusive rights to stream shows that would be of interest to nerds, shows like Doctor Who.
The executives at these companies are betting that the rights to these shows will bring in more revenue than what they're paying for the rights. HBO has a five year deal for over $200 million per year for Big Bang Theory. The rights are limited to the US, so they won't bring in revenue globally for this show. HBO Max may be more expensive than most streaming services with speculation that it will be $15/month. That works out to $180/year, so HBO would need to attract ~1.11 million customers to subscribe for a full year in order to break even. It's a big risk, particularly when they're also competing against syndication.
The rights to broadcast sports are also very expensive, with lots of multi-billion dollar deals for the Olympics and leagues like the NFL. Many of the networks are regretting the agreements they've committed to and are looking for ways to make the deals more profitable. NBC has moved content behind paywalls that was once freely available to cable subscribers. Advertising is becoming increasingly obnoxious in most sporting events. If the networks don't pay enough, there's the risk that no network will get the rights and sports will only be available through subscription. If networks were unwilling to pay enough for the rights to the NFL, the league could simply not sign any agreements and just make the games available through NFL Sunday Ticket or a similar service.
For streaming shows, it probably means advertising will be inserted into these shows or the price of the service will increase. At some point, customers will be unwilling to pay for a large number of streaming services and the market won't continue to grow. We may well be close to that point already. I suspect that the market will eventually consolidate and many of these streaming services will fail or otherwise cease to exist. Until that happens, I think we'll see more advertising, higher prices, and tactics to increase revenue that are generally very annoying to consumers.
You might not care about Big Bang Theory, but if you're a nerd who wants to watch Doctor Who, you might have to pay higher rates to stream it.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 18 2019, @01:25PM (4 children)
Oh, I do care about TV. Just not about BigBang Theory, Friends and the like.
News, investigative reporting, foreign correspondence, world cinema (this terms automatically excludes Disney and Marvel)
HBO does have some interesting productions now and then, but it's not enough for me to want to be hooked on them.
You mean exclusive right on that pommy show available on national public TV here [abc.net.au], the one free of ads? Somehow I don't think their exclusivity is that exclusive as you say.
But yeah, I'm past the age when I just can't wait for the next episode or series.
Those executives may be quite desperate to take this gamble. Thanks God I'm not in the entertainment industry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 18 2019, @02:26PM (1 child)
Damn, that's almost worth moving to Oz for. I could watch British television for free, without spoofing through a proxy? Awesome. Can I get you to spray for spiders before I move in?
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Thursday September 19 2019, @12:53AM
Why should I?
A good pair of Vegemite sandwiches** at breakfast keeps them spiders away for the whole day.
** if you smear them behind your ears or in your armpits. Works for drop bears too [wikipedia.org].
A small price to pay for watching Pommy TV for free, especially that a Vegemite jar is cheaper than a good size can of insect spray and keeps you going for months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 18 2019, @07:13PM
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/13/20864305/gundala-review-indonesian-superhero-film-bumilangit-cinematic-universe [theverge.com]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday September 18 2019, @11:50PM
I would be prepared to bet you a whole dollarydoo that the executives in charge have no real clue what they're doing, now that their industry is changing really quickly.
What they do have is access to a whole lot of money though, hence the billion for Big Bang Theory.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday September 18 2019, @02:13PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday September 18 2019, @03:19PM (2 children)
Star Trek more your thing? Or are you post TV? Cord cutter, or cord never? I've always found it baffling that so many people are willing to pay so much for cable TV.
What strikes me about this is, where's the whining about piracy taking all the profit out of the entertainment biz? Shouldn't TV shows be worth close to $0, if piracy is the big problem they claim it is?
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday September 18 2019, @06:24PM
That depends on the nature of the bundle that a cable ISP offers to its Internet subscribers as enticement to subscribe or stay subscribed to TV. Some reportedly even pay their Internet subscribers to take TV.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday September 19 2019, @12:22AM
Was. I lost interest in it.
The only full collection of TV series that I chose to buy on discs is MASH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday September 18 2019, @09:04PM (3 children)
Go over to CNN: they gots breaking news like this https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/18/business/lays-redesigns-potato-chip-bag/index.html [cnn.com]
Yeah.
News!
Yeah.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday September 19 2019, @12:17AM (1 child)
I can congratulate myself I chose to emigrate into a country where one gets a good quality national news service (among others) paying for it with the taxes.
(see https://news.abc.net.au [abc.net.au] )
(or, in other words, sucks to have only commercial news services)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday September 19 2019, @12:31AM
Me too!
CBC.ca
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 19 2019, @05:30AM
Now that story may actually be true.