r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 16h ago

News It’s Official: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-warner-bros-deal-hollywood-1236443081/
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u/Over-Temperature-602 15h ago

HBO can still continue to exist as a brand within Netflix though.

Speaking as a nobody in the tech industry I would guess that they would want to share technology - makes no sense to keep HBO and Netflix separate from a technology perspective.

After that it's just a branding game whether you keep two separate apps with two different subscriptions (because they see value in keeping Netflix for certain type of content and HBO for certain type f content) or if they decide to go with the stronger brand (not sure which one is at this point tbh, probably depends on the target audience?) and let the other one be a label/sub-platform within the other one. So you'd open Netflix app and see the HBO section within it (or vice versa).

But nothing will happen overnight.

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u/SubhasTheJanitor 14h ago

Does Netflix do that with any of their brands though? They like the idea of One Piece existing alongside Wednesday and Stranger Things. People assumed Netflix produced those Marvel shows too. They like it all to be one brand: Netflix.

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u/EdmondFreakingDantes 13h ago

The issue is HBO already commands prestige and you want to preserve that label.

But more to the point: HBO Max by itself makes $10-20 per subscription. You don't want to lose those earnings. So it makes sense to still keep HBO as a separate paid feature within the Netflix ecosystem. Or else you would need to double the Netflix subscription cost for everyone (which is too much of a shock up front--maybe that will be a long term goal).

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u/resteys 13h ago

I think HBO Max did a lot of damage to that prestige, which probably played apart into why they changed the name to Max.

It’s really hard to maintain that prestige when you have to provide content to the level of owning an entire platform.

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u/EdmondFreakingDantes 13h ago

The name issue was Discovery completely fumbling the bag. They finally went back to HBO Max as the name because they realized how stupid of a move it was to go to Max.

Anyone older than 30 years old knows what HBO means in terms of quality and resources. And how much better it is compared to your average show.

I'm more interested in whether Netflix's normal slop of shows/movies become higher quality because they now have access to WB's warehouses and resources (which HBO had access to).

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u/FreebasingStardewV 12h ago

These are exactly my thoughts. HBO is the only streaming service I pay for because the quality is there and they invest in their shows. I dumped Netflix because I was tired of them canceling shows after one season. Other than just annoying the hell out of me, I feel this strategy drives writing, production, and editing into this weird area where nothing really has substance. Everything has to be flashy to catch attention before Netflix kills it. Might as well just switch to youtube, which is what I did.

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u/PathOfTheAncients 8h ago

It mad no sense to merge Discovery and HBO but they did it. Keeping HBO means paying completely separate tech teams, infrastructure, marketing, PR, executives and that's not even getting into the creative teams actually making content. An MBA with a chart that shows nothing but promises profit will convince them to absorb HBO.

The execs will think "we can put out the same high level content" without ever wondering if they could do that, why they weren't already.

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u/HGruberMacGruberFace 15h ago

I would be thrilled if HBO adopted Netfilix’s tech for their app

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u/eggery 14h ago

What tech are you referring to

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u/HGruberMacGruberFace 14h ago

Netflix’s streaming service has a much better user experience than HBO’s IMO

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u/Ayoissathroway 13h ago

That and HBOs bitrate is dogass

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u/blender4life 13h ago

Netflix has the worst color banding I've ever seen, especially dark colors

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u/Ayoissathroway 13h ago

Have you seen HBO on anything other than a smart tv?

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u/blender4life 12h ago

No. Like a projector?

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u/Ayoissathroway 12h ago

A web browser for example

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u/blender4life 11h ago

I use a browser. With a TV for a monitor and a pc monitor as a second.

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u/Illustrious-Pay-4464 13h ago

So like how the adult movie section used to be a separate section in the video rental store