The brutal competition among streaming video has only gotten more fierce in recent years as most major media conglomerates have tried to capture a piece of the market by turning their content libraries into their own services. When Netflix first starting streaming movies and shows they were able to license content from almost every Hollywood studio because no one else was streaming content, and they were happy for the extra revenue. These days, those same studios have their own streaming outlets and they want consumers to come to them to watch those titles.
But it appears that strategy might be evolving. According to a new report, Warner Bros. Discovery — the owners of HBO and the Max streaming service, along with plenty of other cable channels — are now in talks to license some of their library to their rivals at Netflix.
Deadline says that the first title up for discussion is Insecure, the Issa Rae comedy series that aired on HBO for five seasons from 2016 to 2021 — but that “there are other titles being discussed” as well.
READ MORE: There’s a New Most Popular Show Ever on Netflix
Insecure is currently streaming on Max, and supposedly if the deal goes through, the content that WBD licenses to Netflix would not be exclusive — in other words, the HBO content would remain on Max even if it did also show up elsewhere as well. Deadline claimed the deal was “a financial move” opposed by some “HBO veterans.”
The news of the potential deal comes just a few weeks after the launch of WBD’s Max service, replacing the previous HBO Max app. In recent months, Warner Bros. Discovery has also shelved some planned Max original content (like the now-infamous Batgirl movie) and pulled previously produced original content off of HBO/Max in a cost-cutting measure. They also began licensing out some other HBO content (like the Westworld TV series of a few years ago) to free streaming services like Tubi and The Roku Channel.
It will be interesting to see what happens next. Does WBD start licensing out their content even more widely? Will you soon be able to watch The Sopranos on Netflix or Hulu?
The Most Popular Netflix Shows Ever
According to the streaming service, these are the most popular series — based on their total viewsd in their first 28 days of release on Netflix
:quality(85):upscale()/2024/12/24/622/n/1922564/9eb50f2c676abd9f1647c5.05876809_.jpg "New Year’s Eve Underwear Color Meaning")
