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Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix

shubhamjain

Could there be a worse news regarding where content production is headed? Netflix production is trash and all they care is about metrics like viewers who have watched at least x% of certain content. Cuz if they have, and they accumulate y minutes of viewing, they are unlikely to cancel. This is to the point that they are exclusively making dumbed-down content that can be good background noise while viewers scroll through Instagram feeds. They have little taste, or any motivation to bring good stories out.

HBO might not be perfect, but at least its development process still begins with the story and the enthusiasm of the showrunner.

karel-3d

I prefer Netflix to Oracle-ied Paramount.

I don't want Ellisons to own more than they do. Netflix is boring, Ellisons are evil.

Flatcircle

Anyone that thinks Netflix buying WB would be better than the Ellisons knows nothing about the media business. Look at what James Cameron said about it last week, everyone prefers the Ellisons over Netflix because Netflix actively wants to kill the theatrical and physical media businesses

achow

Annapurna Pictures is owned by Megan Ellison. The studio have produced Oscar nominated marquee films like Her, Zero Dark Thirty, American Hustle.

testdelacc1

I wonder if the Ellisons win either way

- any merger they propose will be greenlit by the Trump administration, giving them an advantage. The seller prefers them because the transaction is far more likely to go through.

- Netflix is interested exclusively in the assets and the studio, not in legacy assets like CNN. So Netflix is bidding for that alone. The Ellisons see themselves as recreating the Murdoch playbook. They already control CBS. Even if Netflix succeeds in buying HBO, the Ellisons can pick up CNN later and create a right wing news empire to rival Fox News.

HBO is a nice prize, especially with the prestige and popularity of its content library. But the Ellisons win no matter what.

For viewers and voters I don’t see a win here. HBO production gets Netflix-ified. Say goodbye to quality shows like The Pitt and prepare to welcome streaming-while-scrolling shows like Emily in Paris. And simultaneously you’ll have the Ellisons telling large parts of the population what they’re supposed to think.

burningChrome

HBO cancelled Perry Mason, one of the better done noir detective series. That was kind of the nail in the coffin for me. I still get it free because of my AT&T subscription, but I can't argue that Netflix has really come out with anything really worth watching either - Department Q and Mindhunter are only two that I think of that were decent.

I agree that the majority of stuff on streaming services is complete garbage and nothing is really "binge worthy" like it used to be. The one thing I used to love about Netlfix was going back and watching old movies like Chinatown or To Live and Die in LA. Those are all gone now, replaced with its own produced content that I just think isn't in the same league.

lotsofpulp

HBO died many years ago when ATT fired all the executives that had the taste and vision to make HBO what it was.

They probably had some half decent stuff in the pipeline, but by now, I imagine there is no influence from the HBO of yore.

another_twist

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.

mgh2

If they get bought, Apple could be the only lead for quality content.

apsurd

I agree so much with this. And I immediately think about how I have an ongoing Netflix subscription and I have it because after having cancelled due to the complete shit trash they produce, my dad asked me about how to see the Tyson vs Jake Paul fight and it was then that I knew I was cooked.

I am a subscriber and my dad didn't like the fight but is happy to have been part of the experience of seeing it.

I want to in-principle not pay money into this trash. But "humanity" seems to like to want to witness this trash. And I and my extended family are included!

oh dear

parineum

It's so annoying that you totally _have_ to subscribe to this trash product because society is literally forcing you. I know you definitely don't like it but you feel like you have to watch it or you're wasting the money they forced you to spend.

Keep up the good fight and I hope you make it out safe.

walterbell

> totally _have_ to subscribe to this trash product

For cultural context, it's enough to subscribe for one month, once or twice per year, to catch up on a few movies or episodes of popular series. If a series is good enough for longer viewing and subscription, then the product has earned its keep.

NedF

[dead]

thot_experiment

I highly recommend the website "youtube.com" there's a lot of content on there that's excellent. I am never for want of something to watch, it sort of seems like an absolute golden age of content production to me.

parineum

I'm trying to watch long form cinematic content, not a 10 minute diy video for turning my toaster into a flamethrower with three minutes of ads and "smash that like button" interspersed.

There wre a few YouTube channels I like but they are all educational where one guy talks to the camera about a thing. Is there decent fiction on YouTube? I haven't seen any.

thot_experiment

Get adblock and sponsorblock, or just yt-dlp it and let it cut out all the cruft, watching youtube with the callouts and sponsor segements left in sucks but we have the technology to solve the problem. I would believe there's good long form fiction content, I've listened to fiction podcasts with sound effects so there's at least that. I mostly watch multiple hour long non-fiction content so there's definitely lots of long form available, but I'm not sure how much fiction there is.

prophesi

I think that's more of an issue of discovery. If I wanted decent fiction, I would actually prefer Apple's catalogue of Sci-Fi shows over anything I can find on Netflix these days. While with Youtube, you can find hidden gems outside their algorithm. In fact, I'd recommend not abiding by the algorithm of any platform and seek outside sources for finding shows you'd enjoy. Each platform has the same goal to retain your attention.

jusonchan81

I doubt this will clear the government/regulatory approvals as it seems clearly monopolistic. But these days anything can happen and I might end up being surprised. Netflix stock seems stable in-spite of this news.

AstroNutt

Yuck!! My ex forced me into getting a Netflix subscription because she was dying to watch Stranger Things. It wasn't half bad for the simple reason I grew up in the 80's. The only thing I binge watched was Black Mirror, Sense 8 and a few documentaries.

Since I was forced to get a subscription, thankfully I never gave those bastards my CC info. I just created an account and went to Target or Walmart and bought a couple of $30 gift cards and put the code in. When my account ran dry, that was it. The only thing I pay for now is YouTube premium. That's about all the content I consume online. I figured I'd help support my favorite creators rather than using an ad blocker.

Edit: I payed for Disney+ for one month because she wasn't current on Star Wars movies. That was my first red flag with her.

_puk

You're against Netflix on principle, or?

All I read here is, I bought some gift cards, binge watched a couple of decent series, and then moved on.

AstroNutt

Sorry... It's mainly just the whole subscription model from everyone. The things I want to watch are spread out over too many services. Netflix is the worst one because they can't seem to put anything out worth watching.

silisili

I'm rather curious why they even want HBO. Yes HBO has had far, far more quality programs over the years, but it's not like Netflix hasn't had ample time and infinite money to do the same if they wanted to.

Would be a sad day. I typically equate HBO content with focused quality, and Netflix content as the opposite.

mortsnort

Netflix paid $500M for the rights to Seinfeld for 5 years to give you an idea of what people are using Netflix for. Why make new content when you can sell old content?

andsoitis

Deep IP catalog. DC, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter,….

yalogin

Wow if Netflix buys hbo there isn’t really anything more left in the market to compete with them. On the plus side users don’t have to worry about paying for multiple services.

mikeweiss

Ha! I like how you don't say consumers will pay less... Just less companies asking for money.

etempleton

It will be Netflix and Disney as the prominent players with Apple and Amazon representing the high end prestige TV and lowest common denominator content, respectively.

d3Xt3r

Except there's still Paramount, Disney and Hulu, and even if you get them all, there's no guarantee you can stream what you want to watch due to some bullshit regional distribution rights restrictions, which makes no sense in the digital era...

Simulacra

Which may lead to greater piracy

jader201

> Except there's still Paramount, Disney and Hulu

Should be:

> Except there's still Paramount and Disney/Hulu

Disney and Hulu are combining.

echelon

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 caliber than Netflix.

Amazon gives some good stuff away for "free". Apple has good shows, too.

Disney? Meh - they've got Andor and that's really it.

If whomever buys HBO also also buys A24, it's over. That's all I need.

throw-away_42

Westworld... the show you can't watch on HBO anymore. Taste? Like what they just did to one of the best shows ever, Mad Men? HBO today (Or Max, or HBO Max, or whatever their branding of the day is) is not the HBO it was before David Zaslav got his hands on it.

pirates

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

dylan604

> What does Paramount or Hulu have?

Even less now that Taylor Sheridan has left for greener pastures.

blackjack_

Netflix could have built many franchises by now but instead burns them all in season 1 or season 2 and makes slop on purpose (i.e. explain what you are doing while you are doing it for the people not watching directly, etc). They also just had the most successful franchise launch of all time -- Kpop demon hunters. The brand is apparently worth about 10 billion right now, and they bought the film and the rights from Sony for <20 million.

If they purchase HBO, I assume HBO will regress to the baseline that is Netflix content, not the other way around.

troupo

> Disney? Meh - they've got Andor and that's really it.

Disney owns so much content, IP and nostalgia that they don't care much.

jrflowers

> Disney? Meh - they've got Andor and that's really it.

I like this post about how The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Mad Max and Harry Potter are all valuable IP written by somebody that appears to have never heard of Marvel comics, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Simpsons, any Pixar film, Avatar, The X-Files, or The Bachelor.

hxhbbx7

All this deal making drama, thats been going in media for a while now hides the fact that Content Supply has vastly overshot Demand to levels that make no sense in any other industry. Cost of tools/production/distribution have all massively dropped over the last 2 decades.

Needs a more sustainable story or oscillations and chaos are going to keep increasing.

echelon

> Content Supply has vastly overshot Demand

Content has never overshot demand.

I would drown myself in content if it were good and abundant. It's not. It's lackluster and middling.

Content is scarce because it is expensive to produce. The wrong people get put in charge of projects (or tastes/reception is hard to gauge, and experiences hard to engineer). We wind up with a lot of expensive garbage.

There is a dearth of sci fi and fantasy. A few dozen titles get created, and half of it is garbage. I have money to pay to watch something every night. It just doesn't exist and isn't good.

I'd pay to watch original content. Original ideas don't get funded because it's "too risky". Which is a consequence of the big budgets, massive personnel and time investments, etc.

I see a film every other year or so where I'm not questioning the character arcs, the pacing. Where I'm fully enveloped and transfixed. That doesn't happen frequently enough. Where every note is perfect. It's rare and fleeting, and that's sad.

We're in the Precambrian times. Great content is nigh non-existent. There's a whole lot of "acceptable" and "good enough". But rarely anything sublime that steals away your brain for the rest of the day, forcing you to ruminate.

I want to live in a world where content fits my preferences like a glove and is constantly surprising and delighting me. Unlimited intellectual stimulation and adventure. I know that pinnacle can be reached eventually, just not with our current limitations. This scarcity trough.

bbarnett

I agree with the glove fit bit, while at the same time thinking that we're at the next level of siloed bubbles. All aspects of your world, tailored to how you already think, including TV series/movies/etc.

No new ideas.

(Not saying this is your intent, and yes I do indeed watch what I like. I am not immune to the very thing I worry about)

echelon

Don't get me wrong - I might have poorly communicated my intent.

I want to be catered to and subverted. I want to see things I'm comfortable with and things that make me question everything I know. Things that make me deeply uncomfortable. The full range of experiences.

I just want it to be great and hit the notes in ways that leave me in awe.

This does happen with current media, but it's exceedingly rare. It's a combination of great writing, fantastic direction, unusual stories, phenomenal acting. The mood, set dec and DP, the pacing and editing. Everything lining up in a stroke of brilliance.

And what's funny is that when it happens, people tend to disagree or have differing opinions about it. It's deeply personal.

You know when something speaks to you.

prmoustache

> Content has never overshot demand.

>

> I would drown myself in content if it were good and abundant. It's not. It's lackluster and middling

There is only an amount of time per day you can dedicate spending in front of a screen outside of work hours

Larrikin

What are some good sci-fis in your opinion?

bbarnett

And there will be more of it. Really of what value is HBO, if generative AI and video generation get better, and better, and better.

In 5 years, compute to AI generate video will be super cheap, both through algo being added to silicon for (C|G|T)PUs, and just general increase in compute. Every day, you'll likely see 1000s of TV series, movies, and shorts added to youtube, all with more complex, intriguing stories than the bottom 1/2 of HBO's mix. And the effects will pass or be on par.

I think this will do for movies and TV series, what the internet did to newspapers and magazines. There's really nothing left there, all the deep talent and investigation is pretty much gone.

There will probably be some real gems come out of this. Yet how will you actually find it, through all the "look at mine!" astroturfing and its kin on every site you visit?

alsetmusic

Couldn't do worse than Zaslav…

kacesensitive

Only if they change the name several times only to revert back to the original

K3UL

This is definitely the worst timeline

t0lo

This is worse than Burger King buying Michelin and Nobu

t0lo

Bait and switch... every time... the business world never changes

cess11

I'd wager that it would accelerate rather than decelerate the growing insignificance of US entertainment.

Good for Bollywood, chinese and russian cinema, and so on. For me personally, I have trouble imagining that HBO would ever again be involved in something on par with The Wire, Sopranos or True Blood, and it's not exactly hard to keep them around on a hard drive somewhere.

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