by Thinus Ferreira
Netflix will buy Warner Bros. Discovery's TV and film studios, as well as its HBO Max streaming service for $72 billion, excluding its Discovery Global TV channels.
Netflix and WBD announced the deal on Friday that will give Netflix control of the content produced by TV studios like Warner Bros. Television, film studios like Warner Bros. Pictures, as well as premium pay-TV channel HBO and the video streaming service HBO Max.
Canal+'s MultiChoice is currently in contentious negotiations with WBD for a channels carriage contract extension for its 12 TV channels included on DStv in South Africa and the Rest of Africa (RoA) which expires at the end of December 2025.
Canal+'s MultiChoice and M-Net is furthermore in negotiations for a new content output deal as well with WBD for HBO originals, as well as the TV series and films shown on M-Net (DStv 101), DStv's M-Net Movies channels, and MultiChoice's video streamer Showmax.
Both of these contracts - for the linear TV channels, as well as for the series and films content from WBD - form part of the same negotiations.
Fifteen years ago in December 2010 in an article headlined "Time Warner views Netflix as a fading star", Jeff Bewkes, then the CEO of Time Warner that owned Warner Bros. and HBO, in an interview with the New York Times, said, referring to Netflix, that "It's a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world? I don't think so".
Now that Netflix "Albanian army" has indeed taken over the world - or at least Warner Bros. Discovery.
Netflix's buyout of WBD has to pass regulatory scrutiny in the United States, with the deal expected to take between 12 to 18 months to complete.
It will exclude Discovery Global, the TV channels division that will house WBD's linear TV channels like CNN, CNN International, Cartoon Network, HGTV, Travel channel, Magnolia Network, Discovery Channel and others.
On Friday, Netflix was adamant that nothing would change, that Netflix would continue to operate according to how it always has, and that Warner Bros.' currently operations and distribution would continue independently, including its theatrical film releases and schedule.
The TV and film studios of Warner Bros. are combined the biggest in the world.
Where the deal might run into trouble is the anti-trust issue that will arise with the world's and the United States' biggest video streaming service buying another streaming service and by all measures HBO Max as the one with arguably the most premium content.
The Netflix deal is strongly opposed by Hollywood.
"Together we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling," said Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, in a statement.
"Today's announcement combines two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world," said David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, in the statement.
