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Could there be a worse news regarding where content production is headed? Netflix production is trash and all they care is about metrics like viewers who have watched at least x% of certain content. Cuz if they have, and they accumulate y minutes of viewing, they are unlikely to cancel. This is to the point that they are exclusively making dumbed-down content that can be good background noise while viewers scroll through Instagram feeds. They have little taste, or any motivation to bring good stories out.

HBO might not be perfect, but at least its development process still begins with the story and the enthusiasm of the showrunner.

I prefer Netflix to Oracle-ied Paramount.

I don't want Ellisons to own more than they do. Netflix is boring, Ellisons are evil.

HBO cancelled Perry Mason, one of the better done noir detective series. That was kind of the nail in the coffin for me. I still get it free because of my AT&T subscription, but I can't argue that Netflix has really come out with anything really worth watching either - Department Q and Mindhunter are only two that I think of that were decent.

I agree that the majority of stuff on streaming services is complete garbage and nothing is really "binge worthy" like it used to be. The one thing I used to love about Netlfix was going back and watching old movies like Chinatown or To Live and Die in LA. Those are all gone now, replaced with its own produced content that I just think isn't in the same league.

Trash ? The Diplomat has as good a production value as any.

So does Bridgerton. Adolescence is basically a single shot marvel.

Others - Stranger Things, Money Heist, Black Doves.

Not to mention their true crime documentaries.

Warner Brothers makes quality content. I think this is an almost perfect fit.

If they get bought, Apple could be the only lead for quality content.
I like netflix content generally. I havent had issue to find something to watch. And they have a lot of good dubbing, so I use it for foreign language traing too.
maybe things have changed but Netflix has thrown mindblowing amounts at famous people like Howard and Fincher. makes me the slightly hopeful we see another production from the twisted mind of Larry David. or at least the release of his cancelled doc
I agree so much with this. And I immediately think about how I have an ongoing Netflix subscription and I have it because after having cancelled due to the complete shit trash they produce, my dad asked me about how to see the Tyson vs Jake Paul fight and it was then that I knew I was cooked.

I am a subscriber and my dad didn't like the fight but is happy to have been part of the experience of seeing it.

I want to in-principle not pay money into this trash. But "humanity" seems to like to want to witness this trash. And I and my extended family are included!

oh dear

I highly recommend the website "youtube.com" there's a lot of content on there that's excellent. I am never for want of something to watch, it sort of seems like an absolute golden age of content production to me.
I'm rather curious why they even want HBO. Yes HBO has had far, far more quality programs over the years, but it's not like Netflix hasn't had ample time and infinite money to do the same if they wanted to.

Would be a sad day. I typically equate HBO content with focused quality, and Netflix content as the opposite.

> it's not like Netflix hasn't had ample time and infinite money to do the same if they wanted to.

Yet they've failed, I think it's a culture problem. Buy HBO and hopefully carry over the culture and skills to Netflix that way is pretty much they only hope. Netflix created a few good series, but it's also clear that they don't have the writing talent to produce the volume they want.

Netflix can produce absolutely beautify shows, but they're not well written. They also can't buy content, because a large number of the license holders have their own streaming platform. Buying HBO could get them access to the content they need, if the contracts and licensing carry over.

Deep IP catalog. DC, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter,….
Netflix paid $500M for the rights to Seinfeld for 5 years to give you an idea of what people are using Netflix for. Why make new content when you can sell old content?
All this deal making drama, thats been going in media for a while now hides the fact that Content Supply has vastly overshot Demand to levels that make no sense in any other industry. Cost of tools/production/distribution have all massively dropped over the last 2 decades.

Needs a more sustainable story or oscillations and chaos are going to keep increasing.

> Content Supply has vastly overshot Demand

Content has never overshot demand.

I would drown myself in content if it were good and abundant. It's not. It's lackluster and middling.

Content is scarce because it is expensive to produce. The wrong people get put in charge of projects (or tastes/reception is hard to gauge, and experiences hard to engineer). We wind up with a lot of expensive garbage.

There is a dearth of sci fi and fantasy. A few dozen titles get created, and half of it is garbage. I have money to pay to watch something every night. It just doesn't exist and isn't good.

I'd pay to watch original content. Original ideas don't get funded because it's "too risky". Which is a consequence of the big budgets, massive personnel and time investments, etc.

I see a film every other year or so where I'm not questioning the character arcs, the pacing. Where I'm fully enveloped and transfixed. That doesn't happen frequently enough. Where every note is perfect. It's rare and fleeting, and that's sad.

We're in the Precambrian times. Great content is nigh non-existent. There's a whole lot of "acceptable" and "good enough". But rarely anything sublime that steals away your brain for the rest of the day, forcing you to ruminate.

I want to live in a world where content fits my preferences like a glove and is constantly surprising and delighting me. Unlimited intellectual stimulation and adventure. I know that pinnacle can be reached eventually, just not with our current limitations. This scarcity trough.

And there will be more of it. Really of what value is HBO, if generative AI and video generation get better, and better, and better.

In 5 years, compute to AI generate video will be super cheap, both through algo being added to silicon for (C|G|T)PUs, and just general increase in compute. Every day, you'll likely see 1000s of TV series, movies, and shorts added to youtube, all with more complex, intriguing stories than the bottom 1/2 of HBO's mix. And the effects will pass or be on par.

I think this will do for movies and TV series, what the internet did to newspapers and magazines. There's really nothing left there, all the deep talent and investigation is pretty much gone.

There will probably be some real gems come out of this. Yet how will you actually find it, through all the "look at mine!" astroturfing and its kin on every site you visit?

Wow if Netflix buys hbo there isn’t really anything more left in the market to compete with them. On the plus side users don’t have to worry about paying for multiple services.
Ha! I like how you don't say consumers will pay less... Just less companies asking for money.
It will be Netflix and Disney as the prominent players with Apple and Amazon representing the high end prestige TV and lowest common denominator content, respectively.
Except there's still Paramount, Disney and Hulu, and even if you get them all, there's no guarantee you can stream what you want to watch due to some bullshit regional distribution rights restrictions, which makes no sense in the digital era...
It's the best deal for both companies. Netflix gets the WB back catalogue and studios to provide high quality content and potentially premium streaming services with HBO. WB gets stable cashflows and a place where their content is needed and their production expertise will help improve the current product. I can easily see a new premium Netflix+ channel with that includes HBO bundled with it.

A win for both companies, Netflix with IP and WB with stability.

Yuck!! My ex forced me into getting a Netflix subscription because she was dying to watch Stranger Things. It wasn't half bad for the simple reason I grew up in the 80's. The only thing I binge watched was Black Mirror, Sense 8 and a few documentaries.

Since I was forced to get a subscription, thankfully I never gave those bastards my CC info. I just created an account and went to Target or Walmart and bought a couple of $30 gift cards and put the code in. When my account ran dry, that was it. The only thing I pay for now is YouTube premium. That's about all the content I consume online. I figured I'd help support my favorite creators rather than using an ad blocker.

Edit: I payed for Disney+ for one month because she wasn't current on Star Wars movies. That was my first red flag with her.

You're against Netflix on principle, or?

All I read here is, I bought some gift cards, binge watched a couple of decent series, and then moved on.

If someone didn't know their Star Wars, I'd run the other way too
The thinking in the comments here seems very US-centric (as usual).

Until recently watching HBO in the UK and Europe was not easy unless you’re prepared to watch it on Sky (in the uk anyway) so there’s money on the table for Netflix here in the form of eating some of Sky’s share. (HBO Max is coming to EU in Jan and UK sometime next year finally)

Secondarily adding HBO gives Netflix the opportunity to upgrade its production rather than downgrade HBO.

Having access to HBO/WB catalog on Netflix is going to add a lot of value imo.

I welcome this.

> HBO Max is coming to EU in Jan and UK sometime next year finally

This is a very misleading sentence. HBO Max has been available in 14/27 EU countries since 2022, and by now it's available in 22/27 EU countries, 4 of the remaining ones are covered by Sky, with which they signed an exclusive distribution agreement valid until 2025 back in 2019 - even before HBO Max was launched in the USA.

Great for shareholders, terrible for consumers. This is what we get when we allow rampant consolidation and throw out the idea of regulated competition.
It's not like there's really any competition anyway. Prices are going up, I can't switch from Netflix to HBO, because the content is available across platforms.

If Netflix just moves the HBO content to Netflix then that's one subscription less for a lot of people, so even if Netflix subscription goes up, many will still save money.

Dec 5th? They're a bit behind on this one. Without any concrete source. There's been talk as far back as Monday that Warner is 'warming' to Netflix, so...

Earlier on a different site with an actual named source; and mention of the stock fallout from the hint.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46141031

Remember back in the day when The Atlantic would write an in depth analysis 4 weeks after something happened and it was still considered news?
I'd wager that it would accelerate rather than decelerate the growing insignificance of US entertainment.

Good for Bollywood, chinese and russian cinema, and so on. For me personally, I have trouble imagining that HBO would ever again be involved in something on par with The Wire, Sopranos or True Blood, and it's not exactly hard to keep them around on a hard drive somewhere.

Couldn't do worse than Zaslav…
I doubt this will clear the government/regulatory approvals as it seems clearly monopolistic. But these days anything can happen and I might end up being surprised. Netflix stock seems stable in-spite of this news.
Sad news. HBO has a veritable treasure trove of TV shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Silicon Valley etc. Even their more recent ones like White Lotus, How to With John Wilson are leagues above Netflix. Only HBO can bet on artists’ vision like that.

I cancelled my Netflix subscription 7 years ago, 99% of their content is algorithmic drivel. Mindhunter, Dahmer, House of Cards were something I liked but nothing beyond that. I knew they were trash once I saw the sheer number of spinoffs they have just on Pablo Escobar. They had had one decent run of Narcos but then they just tried to extract every drop of juice out of that one persona. Most of Netflix dramas are just the equivalent of abhorrent and ugly graffiti. Their shows are Exhibit A in what happens if you give into algorithmic drivel and have no human touch to curate them.

HBO has some timeless TV classics that I keep rewatching every year even though I have watched them multiple times. Netflix can’t produce TV dramas like that, ain’t in their blood. Completely different DNAs.

Netflix does deserve all the plaudits wrt to their streaming experience though.

I went to a concert last night and wore a T-shirt I made that said "Fuck Warner Bros." The band was j*Davey. Warner Bros signed them over fifteen years ago and then shoved them into a box. The show last night, fortunately for me, was only about 300 people, but it should have been 10,000. Prince was a fan. They birthed an entire category of LA artists like Thursday Thundercat, Syd, Flying Lotus (those artists say that in their Instagram). They loved my T-shirt when we met after the show.

I got really emotional when I saw them again for the first time in twenty years. They are just amazing, and it is so shocking they couldn't make it work in the industry.

But Spotify seems even worse. It feels like the parasites are even worse now, and they turn around and invest in military startups.

What's the alternative? This band sold out of merch last night, is that enough for them to survive, or dare I dream, thrive in the world of today?

If you are in LA, go see them next week on the 12th. They are releasing a new album and if the world makes sense their next show will be 10,000 people.

Lots of complaints about Netflix, but for the money, combined with Prime, I only miss affordable NHL, which is split between too many providers.

I agree that I wish Netflix had less lowbrow content, but they target a wide audience, and let's be honest, most people willing watch crap.

And seriously: go for a walk, read a book, play a game, or work on a hobby? TV shouldn't be your life, and it's long been one of the big societal problems.

https://archive.ph/2E2Fk
The final slopification of TV content.
Bait and switch... every time... the business world never changes
This is worse than Burger King buying Michelin and Nobu
It's interesting that despite their being a huge crop of talented, rich, and famous Hollywood actors, writers, producers, and directors, they can't figure out how to make movies and TV and distribute them without going through all these enormous conglomerates that they seem to truly despise.

Just start a studio and put out quality content exactly the way you want it and see if you can do better! It's literally never been easier! If the chucklefucks who run these streaming services can figure it out, some smart filmmakers should be able to put together a workable business plan while Clooney and Pitt rizz up some investors.

This is definitely the worst timeline
I am pretty confident Lina Khan and many like her will end up back in government and this mergers are going to be reversed.
HBO the only definitively quality TV producer headed for enshittification.
If HBO is ringfenced and funded then fine. Otherwise we're fucked.
hate Netflix for its content process, hate Oracle for its owner.

first time ever, I'm rooting for Comcast.

lol

HBO should be the one to buy Netflix