AT&T fails to grasp the true value of "Friends" (sells rights to Netflix for $100 million)

[Auggie]

NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - What’s the value of having friends? For AT&T, the answer seems to be about $100 million. That’s how much the telecoms group may charge streaming service Netflix to show the hit TV show of that name for another year. Given AT&T’s plans to launch its own video service, depriving a rival of a blockbuster might have been smarter.

That said, the $120 billion Netflix ought to be able to tell a bad deal from a good one. The service has a vast trove of data on what its 130 million viewers want to watch. Sure, Hastings is spending on programming like a drunken sailor – Netflix’s streaming content obligations are nearly $19 billion – but that is because he anticipated a bitter war with other media companies. Walt Disney’s Bob Iger, for instance, is pulling most of the Magic Kingdom’s fare off Netflix in preparation for its own forthcoming video product.

The big mystery is why Dallas-based AT&T would want Netflix to have “Friends” at all. It is planning to roll out its own direct-to-consumer video service in the fourth quarter of next year, having bought Time Warner for $85 billion. AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said on Tuesday the goal is not to become another Netflix. But it’s not like that would be a bad thing: Netflix’s stock has doubled in two years, even after the recent tumble in tech shares.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-netflix-content-breakingviews/breakingviews-att-fails-to-grasp-the-true-value-of-friends-idUSKBN1O42I0

$100 million dollars ... holy jumpin catfish! Imagine the show business jobs that could create in new content. Imagine the teachers that could pay ... the homes it could build ... the people it could help ...

[exboyfil]

1. Will it keep 1 million viewers from cancelling

Netflix? If so then it is a good deal. Also as the article pointed out it has strategic implications as well.

I am very close to cancelling Netflix. Once I finish the Daredevil series I may give it a break for a while until the next seasons of Punisher and Jessica Jones drop.

Frankly a lot of their original content is embarrassing.

[Auggie]

2. I wouldn't think Friends was worth that much ...

it's already been in syndication for years. Plus, it's feeling a little dated.

I'm close to cancelling it for a while too. How was Jessica Jones Season 2? I saw Season 1 -- it was intense.

[exboyfil]

4. Season 2 not as good as Season 1

Not very memorable. I kind of hope that Disney Marvel does a soft reboot on Hulu of the gritty Marvel shows that includes David Tennant as Kilgrave. Also pick up the actors that play Luke Cage, Matt Murdoch, and Wilson Fisk. I imagine one ongoing series that has episodes that concentrate on different heroes but brings them together in different combinations. Also bring in other characters like Moon Knight, Man Thing, and even, need I say it, Howard the Duck.

The gritty Marvel series suffered from the heroes being too similar. Maybe it is the production budget, but how many hallway fight scenes are we going to have.

If DC can have a kidcentric Go Teen Titans and an adult oriented Titans, I think you could pull off the more mature content on Hulu (which Disney now owns a controlling share of). This opens up the opportunity for both Spider-man and Daredevil fighting Kingpin like in the comics.

[earthshine]

3. Well said!

Frankly a lot of their original content is embarrassing.

And that's why they removed the user reviews from the streaming site.

I find very little of the original programming to be compelling. Also, many of the older streaming movies look terrible on the screen.

Like you, I enjoy the set of Marvel series, but not all of them.

[Cicada]

5. Or get 100,000 new subscribers who stay 10 years?

Their future is the world outside the US. Friends may be a draw in foreign markets.