Netflix to Buy Warner Bros. Discovery in Major Streaming Deal

[kcwookie]

I sense a pang of sarcasm. But truly, what is wrong with “capitalism” in this? This isn’t life-necessary medicine, or farming, or road maintenance, or teaching. It is all about producing and streaming entertainment content. One doesn’t need it by any stretch. They could double the prices; many people would still pay, and why is that at all bad? Not all content everywhere is raising its price for one, and there is always new free (meaning ad-supported and actual free) content being created all the time. Just look for it.

If the pang of sorrow is for the employees, I’m much more sympathetic. But these particular companies are still bloated from COVID-hiring times. Some of the content spending launched there is obscene, and has produced very bad (i.e., non-profitable, perhaps more social advocacy than anything else) programming. Time for all those efforts to figure out a way to profit or end; these aren’t non-profit art-houses.

I’m hoping that a large part of the work force in entertainment and tech realize that they need to change their careers. Whether it be civil infrastructure work (union halls are begging for young people to learn crafts), rural medical needs, firefighters, police academies, forest management . . . lots of things AI cannot do, can’t be done by leaders and companies only concerned about the next fiscal quarter, and which have a real impact in the real world. Maybe several of the third assistant directors on that really cool show will realize they can do more needed things in life, and earn a stable income elsewhere, too, so they can actually pay off those student loans they didn’t think twice about taking out. A lot of this physical work isn’t easy, but it is so very necessary. Particularly as the President and half the country seem quite intent on removing illegal immigrants from the country. And we as a society could probably spend less on Ozempic and its cousins if more people move around and strain more.

It’s funny — every time a sector drives itself into a ditch through consolidation and bad management, someone pops up to say ‘Don’t worry, this is how capitalism is supposed to work.’

And then, right on cue, comes the classic line: ‘The workers should just reinvent their lives.

Maybe the real issue isn’t that people picked the wrong jobs. Maybe it’s that we’ve built an economy where whole industries can torch themselves and the bill always gets handed to the workers.

 

[turbineseaplane]

You're in the minority.
View attachment 2585271

This is truly amazing.

I'm also in the minority.
I get Netflix exposure every time at a family members house (8 visits per year or so) and I find the whole service to be just a huge bunch of total garbage "content" filler.

(obv there are outliers in the mix .. I just mean overall)

 

[Fara82Light]

Interesting. However, the UK Government doesn't own the BBC. The public does. It's an independent organisation, founded by Royal Charter, paid for by the public through a fee. It's regulated by the Government through a regulatory body, like all UK based broadcasters, but not owned by them. So they couldn't sell it as such. I guess the BBC could decide to sell itself, but I don't think even that could happen without laws being changed, because of the Charter....

I take your point though. As a UK citizen, something's gotta change at the BBC. And that's coming from someone who broadly supports its aims. Been a very long time since the BBC did any "inform, educate and entertain", at least as far as I'm concerned.

Correct, the BBC is not owned by the government, but it is also not owned by the public.

However, the UK Government is the legislative authority.

There is a key problem that the UK Government has to deal with regarding the funding of the BBC. If the government does not put a plan in place, then it will be left with an institution that can not fund itself (the number of licence payers is declining and at an accelerating rate as consumers move to subscription services). The BBC could be moved via legislation to a subscription model, but projections of potential revenue continually fall short of the BBC's funding requirements. The government could fund the BBC directly, but that would then undermine the independence (from government) of the BBC.

Thus, the alternative that keeps cropping up is; who can we sell it to?

 

[maflynn]

I'm also in the minority.

My wife and kids use netflix all of the time. After the last price increase, I asked if anyone would mind if I cancelled netflix, they all lost their minds, lol

 

[Fara82Light]

Interesting. However, the UK Government doesn't own the BBC. The public does. It's an independent organisation, founded by Royal Charter, paid for by the public through a fee. It's regulated by the Government through a regulatory body, like all UK based broadcasters, but not owned by them. So they couldn't sell it as such. I guess the BBC could decide to sell itself, but I don't think even that could happen without laws being changed, because of the Charter....

I take your point though. As a UK citizen, something's gotta change at the BBC. And that's coming from someone who broadly supports its aims. Been a very long time since the BBC did any "inform, educate and entertain", at least as far as I'm concerned.

Indeed, we, in the UK, are coming to a crunch point regarding the BBC.

My thoughts are that culturally, the BBC would seem to be a good fit with Apple TV. In the medium term, the BBC will be migrating to over-the-top delivery of programming anyway. What better than to find common ground around the iPlayer and the back catalogue while opening up the customer base to a worldwide audience rather than remaining mainly reliant upon UK revenues?

 

[Alan Wynn]

Paraphrasing yourself:

That is a load of bull!

Monopoly? Amazon exists. So does Disney. Not only that, as a media consumer, you aren’t even forced to watch videos over streaming streaming services.

…just like Netflix doesn’t and won’t ever have a monopoly on movie distribution. DVD and Blu-ray discs do movie distribution. No need to make the market so narrow, just to claim Netflix would have a monopoly.

And always remember:
“It’s not illegal to be a monopoly”

I am confused. Have you changed your position on Apple being a monopoly? Do you support this merger? What actually is your position?

Netflix is the number one streaming service at 72% of U.S. households. HBO is number 7 at 41%. That would not be where the monopoly was (if there is one). The questions I would be asking if I were trying to analyze this merger for an anti-trust violation would be: How much of Warner Brother’s content is licensed to other streamers and what would happen to them were it all to be pulled? What would happen to movie theaters if WB stopped delivering its films to them? How many hours of Warner Brothers and Netflix owned content are actually streamed, vs. the total streaming market.

In other words, it would be about the library and actual usage, not about subscriber count. There is no barrier to producing new programming, so that clearly cannot be a monopoly, nor is there a barrier to distributing new programming. Where there are potential issues is how long it would take to replicate the amount of material in their library.

I do not think that a Warner Brothers - Netflix combination will have monopoly power, nor do I think that Apple has monopoly power.

I would prefer that Netflix was better integrated on my Apple TV, but that is not a deal breaker for me.

 

[BMox81]

My wife and kids use netflix all of the time. After the last price increase, I asked if anyone would mind if I cancelled netflix, they all lost their minds, lol

Yep-out of all the services available my wife has decreed that all the others can come and go but Netflix is the non negotiable.

 

[chmania]

The government could fund the BBC directly, but that would then undermine the independence (from government) of the BBC.

Is the BBC truly independent from the government or the ruling party at any given moment? Is the BBC creating news or simply reporting it?

An excerpt from BBC "reporting" today,

The editor who wrote that wants to convey, in other words, that the BBC is not controlled by Westminster. Oh, it is just regulated...

 

[JD2015]

Will Friends be on it?

 

[TheDailyApple]

Hate it. They're gonna be what Microsoft is to the gaming industry. And also probably stop printing physical media. Hate it all around.

I’m really concerned about this. Ever since all the major streaming services started charging extra just to watch in full quality, I’ve been building a physical media collection. Netflix, however, resists allowing their originals to be anywhere else—digital renting, physical media, etc. I hope this doesn’t kill the new DCU for those unwilling to subscribe.

 

[GTDaveMac]

I mean I hate the mergers. But I suppose I'd rather Netflix than Paramount. So ill take a smol win where I can. Would absolutely love to see Netflix give Westworld its final season.

At least Paramount would’ve kept an increased integration with Apple TV. I hope Netflix doesn’t get rid of it for the non-Netflix products. I think it makes more sense for Netflix too adopt Apple TV integration, especially if this merger goes through.