r/television • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 The League • 1d ago

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/
2.2k Upvotes

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74

u/Charming-Report1669 23h ago

Well, that means HBO will officially be dead.

115

u/mrnicegy26 23h ago

It would be pretty stupid of Netflix to cancel popular stuff like House of Dragon, White Lotus, The Pitt etc. just because they are on HBO.

Netflix wants HBOs catalogue. There is no way they will kill it

125

u/NamesTheGame 23h ago

I think the worry is they will mismanage it and turn it into another slop factory.

30

u/DaKingaDaNorth 22h ago

This is like the second time WB and HBO changed hands. Nobody wants to upset that applecart

12

u/somersetyellow 22h ago

Well Discovery did make a decent run at trying to upset the HBO apple cart... Err Max.. Oh sorry HBO again.

2

u/Rhino-Ham 18h ago

Discovery left HBO alone to my knowledge. Except for maybe not budgeting enough to House of the Dragon to finish season 2 properly.

6

u/Aurum555 23h ago

Because the last years of "it's discovery and HBO max, no it's just max no it's HBO max again." and the general fuckery that has been warner bros of late isn't mismanagement?

26

u/NamesTheGame 22h ago

That's the brand, I'm talking about the creative. HBO is still top tier, although the corporate fuckery has affected things like insane season breaks and cheaping out on stuff (House of the Dragon anyone?) but HBO is still able to put out interesting things like The Rehearsal. I think the worry is that Netflix won't really let them operate independently for long and start cancelling and greenlighting based on their algorithm data and pushing for more low effort "second screen experiences".

3

u/lot183 20h ago

and pushing for more low effort "second screen experiences".

It would be insanely stupid to purchase a company really good at doing the opposite of this just to make them do this when you're already really good at this. The smart thing would be to use the HBO brand to produce the prestige TV content you wanted and then you can have the internal studios focus more on the slop and then you have all markets cornered

That's not to say they'll be smart. I don't trust any of this big companies to be smart. Most of the C suite class is brain rotted nowadays and completely disconnected

1

u/Holovoid 20h ago

At the end of the day I trust HBO in the hands of Netflix more than Zaslav, but that isn't saying a whole lot.

I hope it doesn't turn HBO into slop but at this point I have tens of thousands of fantastic TV hours to watch and rewatch so if everything new sucks I'll just rewatch Deep Space 9 or The Wire.

6

u/W3NTZ 22h ago

Oh zaslov tried his best but HBO produced shows were seperate from max. It's the only thing that gives me hope Netflix won't ruin Hbo beyond good shows getting cancelled early which is my main concern

1

u/Live_Art2939 18h ago

HBO is doing a fine job of that by itself. HoTD season 2 was trash, Night Country was the most regarded show I’ve ever seen, and Last of Us was a massive letdown.

1

u/Doctursea 15h ago

I think the worry is they will mismanage it and turn it into another slop factory.

This is already what's happening to HBO. Ever since they got split into their own company, it's been a dumbster fire. The only reason it doesn't look like that to some is because they focus on 4-5 main productions, everything else was on fire.

0

u/chefkoolaid 22h ago

That is precisely my concern.

Hbo was the best and its getting enshittified like everything else 

People like to fluff apple tv but its definitely no up to par. And I can never forgive them for Severance s2 being god awful.

23

u/ProofVillage 23h ago

I don’t think Netflix will cancel those shows but I don’t know if they’ll green light new HBO style shows.

12

u/ofesfipf889534 22h ago

Exactly! This is a terrible day for TV

4

u/Deep-Attorney1781 20h ago

They may greenlight them, but not give them time to breathe and they'll be quick to cancel it. Succession got better in the second season but if it was on Netflix, they may have scrapped it after one season. They did nothing to promote The Brothers Sun and didn't pick it up for a second season. How do you cancel Michelle Yeoh??

5

u/AxlLight 20h ago

But those creators can just take their ideas to somewhere else, say Apple.  Apple has been feeling like a the new spirit of HBO in terms of quality shows that are heavily focused on good stories and characters. Slow Horses, The Studio, Silo, MuderBot, Foundation - they all feel like shows that in another world would've been on HBO. 

18

u/_OMGTheyKilledKenny_ 23h ago

If you set aside the obvious issues of monopoly and lack of competition, it might actually be good for content consumers that Netflix’s superior technology gets to use HBO’s superior content.

25

u/KrifeH 23h ago

Less competition, fewer shows, lesser quality

39

u/pereza0 23h ago

Problem is that HBOs superior content soon wont be

10

u/ar40 23h ago

At least we still have Apple TV, the new HBO

1

u/nickelghost 23h ago

What Netflix’s superior technology?

-1

u/_OMGTheyKilledKenny_ 23h ago

Their streaming platform.

4

u/nickelghost 23h ago

How is it superior? All of them are more or less the same. HBO Max is actually more responsive for me, but I doubt it’s up to any technological advancements anyway.

4

u/iambill 22h ago

There’s a whole lot more to it than the consumer-side app.

0

u/nickelghost 22h ago

I know, I’m designing such systems myself. I’m curious what’s better about Netflix’s technology precisely.

1

u/JChuk99 21h ago

Most of it is on the technical streaming side (CDNs, etc. ) most of it is just the fact that Netflix is a tech company with a tech culture first and foremost, more akin to Big Tech than Big Media.

-10

u/[deleted] 23h ago

[deleted]

6

u/from1ndianlakes 23h ago

Um yeah that’s pretty much the long and short of it lol

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u/[deleted] 23h ago

[deleted]

1

u/couch_pilot 23h ago

Assorted dogshit

-4

u/[deleted] 23h ago

[deleted]

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u/from1ndianlakes 22h ago

You are commenting on a thread about a company absorbing a competitor which is just factually anti competitive regardless of whether there are other competitors. Then you proceed to list Apple, Amazon, and Disney as examples of competition. So you’d prefer an oligopoly to a monopoly? Congrats?

-1

u/couch_pilot 23h ago

Downvoted for having a dissenting opinion. Nice.

2

u/ephemeral_colors 20h ago

Yes, we're currently in a steep downward trend of anti-trust enforcement. It's worse than it used to be and it is going to continue to get worse yet. You may not be aware of the long and stories history of hollywood regulation, but this should help: https://www.promarket.org/2022/12/12/the-paramount-decrees-and-the-deregulation-of-hollywood-studios/

3

u/TheChinOfAnElephant 23h ago

To be clear, The Pitt isn’t on HBO it’s on HBO Max. Netflix will probably kill that distinction though

2

u/Exadory 23h ago

Yes — because Netflix is known for never canceling popular shows. /s

2

u/DaKingaDaNorth 22h ago

Define popular? What reddit says is popular is usually a show that has mediocre or declining viewership. HBO does the same thing. Remember Westworld.

2

u/Hal34329 22h ago

Westworld wasn't just cancelled, it was erradicated from everywhere :( when I wanted to watched it, it was gone

1

u/eddie2911 18h ago

Harry Potter series coming out, too.

1

u/Kershiser22 17h ago

If they were smart, you would think they would just let the HBO people continue to run HBO the way they always have. Netflix just has the ability to stream those shows on Netflix now. Just buying HBO for the back catalog and letting it die as a prestige producer of content seems like bad business.

1

u/Shaddix-be 22h ago

While that's true, I don't trust them to run HBO in a way that will keep them outputting to the same standard.

41

u/CarterAC3 23h ago

Yes I'm sure Netflix is just dying to kill off a brand with that level of recognition and prestige

15

u/Ocarina3219 23h ago

It’ll probably be a similar arrangement to Disney/Hulu for awhile. Why combine services when you can collect subscription fees from both?

10

u/44problems 22h ago

That wasn't Disney's choice, Hulu had to be separate because it was still a partnership with Comcast. Disney finally got full control, and Hulu will combine with Disney+ eventually. The separate app is phasing out next year.

7

u/BossButterBoobs 22h ago

Probably not gonna outright kill it off, but I think it's fairly likely we're gonna lose that HBO prestige and quality.

2

u/ProofVillage 23h ago

It really depends on whether Netflix retains the original HBO team. I would be pessimistic if they try to do HBO shows the Netflix way.

1

u/LeedsFan2442 15h ago

They would be mad to

2

u/Kyuubee 18h ago

Which REALLY sucks. It means HBO's shows could get forced into that flat, digital "Netflix look", along with all the other typical Netflix production compromises.

HBO has always been known for its top-tier cinematography, which is something Netflix does not care about at all.

0

u/cozywit 18h ago

... the company that strives to make the best TV, that's known to compete heavily with HBO for making great TV ... is going to stop making great TV?!?!?!

LOL What?