WarnerMedia: Future Streaming Giant?
WarnerMedia disbands multiple services to prepare for one massive streaming service
Within the past month, AT&T has been on a chopping spree, cutting numerous “niche” services that its newly-owned WarnerMedia had in its catalogue. The biggest surprise amongst cinephiles was the cancellation of FilmStruck, a film subscription-streaming service that focused on providing its viewers with classic, indie, and arthouse films. The other services that were also cancelled were SuperDeluxe, a youth-focused comedy brand, and DramaFever, a nine-year-old streaming service that focused on Korean soaps and other Asian-focused content.
With every merger there are always changes. From departments being disbanded to numerous lay-offs, companies weed out what they feel is unnecessary to the company’s future. Having AT&T end these niche services like FilmStruck, it seems like the company’s future is focusing solely on mainstream content. WarnerMedia has even said they are planning on shifting resources to mass-market entertainment services instead of focusing on niche brands. These cancellations follow this planned blueprint.
Once the merger was complete, WarnerMedia announced their plan to create a streaming service that they believe could rival Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and the upcoming Disney streaming service. Even though HBO is the company’s cornerstone in this plan, many people think this might just be one too many services and their isn’t enough content to go around. But WarnerMedia might actually have a lot in its corner. I think the recent cancellations show that. They are consolidating their assets to make one service that could rival the others.
“…we are committed to launching a compelling and competitive product that will serve as a complement to our existing businesses and help us to expand our reach by offering a new choice for entertainment with the WarnerMedia collection of films, television series, libraries, documentaries and animation” — John Stankey, CEO of WarnerMedia
Like Disney, WarnerMedia has an extensive library they could put on their streaming service. Disney has the Star Wars universe and Marvel, while WarnerMedia has the Harry Potter universe and DC. This is not a debate about which one of these franchises are better, but it shows that like Disney, WarnerMedia has at least two big franchises they can use to entice mainstream audiences to their service. This is not something many other studios, or streaming services for that matter, can offer. This is what can bring in the mainstream viewer. Everyone in the content business nowadays is after brands and WarnerMedia arguably has two of the biggest.
WarnerMedia also owns Turner Classic Movies, which was the entity that ran FilmStruck. I think that the reason behind cancelling FilmStruck was so that WarnerMedia can use that service’s content for their planned streaming service. They want to cut out the numerous services and put them under one umbrella, which means, hopefully, one payment for subscribers to get all the content. FilmStruck had close to 2,000 films on its service at any given point. Majority of those films came from the Warner Bros. and MGM libraries.
If WarnerMedia decides to add the FilmStruck catalog to its service, that means they just infused their service’s library with at least 2,000 films that are incredibly hard to find nowadays, unless you live in a city that is lucky enough to have an independent video store still. This could help bring in the more art-centric crowd. Maybe I’m just an upset FilmStruck fan, but I’m holding out hope for this. WarnerMedia could possibly do the same with SuperDeluxe as well, at least with their long-form content.
With the FilmStruck library and the most recent Warner Bros. films, this new WarnerMedia service has a lot films that could attract some subscribers. But, what about television? Outside of HBO, what other television shows can WarnerMedia offer to its subscribers? Well, outside of The CW and its earlier iteration WB that focused mainly on teen-centric content, Warner has never had a traditional network that it can plug its shows into like Fox or Disney has. So, their shows had to be outsourced to other networks like NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox.
Warner Bros. Television has produced numerous hit television shows like Friends, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, ER, The West Wing, The Big Bang Theory, Will & Grace, Gilmore Girls, Shameless, Gossip Girl, Lethal Weapon, Castle Rock, and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Now, majority of these shows have streaming deals elsewhere…for the moment.
The Friends streaming deal is one of the biggest deals ever when Netflix purchased the streaming rights to the show back in 2014 for a reported $118 million (Something AT&T is probably regretting now). But, what happens once that contract runs out? Will Netflix be allowed to re-up or does the hit show head over to the WarnerMedia streaming service? It seems like WarnerMedia is planning on taking its content off Netflix, unless there are specific deals in place. So, Friends might be heading back to Warner in the future. This would be similar to what Disney is doing in regards to Netflix. They have not re-upped their deals with Netflix and Netflix is currently cancelling some of the few Disney-produced shows they have on their service. It won’t be too long before Disney is completely off Netflix. The big reason why I think Netflix is focusing heavily on producing countless original content is because they are aware studios are going to start pulling their content off the site to place it on their own sites. When that happens, Netflix’s library could drastically shrink.
AT&T and WarnerMedia are prepping to become a massive player in the streaming game. They do not have the $8 billion budget that Netflix is pumping into their content each year, so they have to get rid of the services that they feel are unnecessary. But Warner isn’t planning on becoming Netflix. They are looking at what Disney is doing. Like Disney, this streaming service will not be the company’s main source of income like it is for Netflix. This a side venture that could be very profitable for the company if all goes well.
The best thing I think WarnerMedia should focus more on is curation and presentation. Netflix is cluttered with thousands of titles broken down into mainly generic genres. WarnerMedia should look at creating a service somewhere in between Netflix and, funny enough, FilmStruck. FilmStruck created special collections for its subscribers and promoted discovery. On Netflix, if it isn’t on your top screen, then there is a good chance you won’t even know it’s on the service. Randall Stephenson, the chief executive at AT&T, has referred to HBO as Tiffany’s to Netflix’s Walmart. If they truly believe that, then this upcoming service should reflect that. They should focus on presentation and curation, not just quantity.
Now, when looking at Disney, the one main difference between Warner and Disney is that Disney has a steadfast rule of only including family-centric content on their service, while the more mature content will be placed on Hulu. It is doubtful that WarnerMedia will follow a similar rule.
WarnerMedia will have a century-long film catalogue and a sixty-year-long television catalogue that they can inject into their service instantly (depending on current contracts) .You will be able to choose between Looney Tunes cartoons or Rick and Morty episodes if you’d like. You’ll be able to choose between A Star is Born starring Judy Garland or A Star is Born starring Lady Gaga. In today’s Battle of Content, WarnerMedia is a big power that’s about to step onto the battlefield in 2019. Let’s see how big of an impact they can make.
