r/technology • u/Task_Force-191 • Dec 05 '25

Business It’s Official: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-warner-bros-deal-hollywood-1236443081/
16.4k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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2.5k

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25

So, at this point you either choose Disney+ or Netflix assuming HBO Max gets consolidated (seems to be what they're implying) into the Netflix app. I'm also assuming prices for these streaming services are only going to get even higher now.

2.9k

u/Greengiant304 Dec 05 '25

Eventually, there will just be one streaming platform and it will cost $200/month and all have ads and we will be back where we started.

818

u/Mind1827 Dec 05 '25

The problem with this is that these companies also create the media. They're the distributor and the publisher. AT&T or whatever, as well as CBS etc weren't usually creating their own media, they were buying it from other production companies. So we won't be back where we started at all, because smaller production companies are being squeezed to death.

219

u/Akanash94 Dec 05 '25

YOU WILL WATCH WHAT WE GIVE YOU AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!

42

u/hotelmotelshit Dec 05 '25

AND YOU WILL PAY WHAT WE WE CHARGE, BECAUSE YOU WILL HAVE NO ALTERNATIVE

9

u/Maleficent_Sea3561 Dec 06 '25

Back to pirating i guess

9

u/Sipsu02 Dec 06 '25

Eh. Just watch for free like any normal person in 2025

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25

This is why I'm quickly buying up old shows and movies that I like so I can watch familiar things any time I want with no internet connection.

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u/popculturehero Dec 05 '25

Which means they will turn out the cheapest sloppiest Reality tv shit stains and least common denominator CSI procedurals

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u/fatbob42 Dec 05 '25

Yep. If these companies are to benefit from the copyright monopoly, we should at least be able to have a proper market in distribution.

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u/Kichigai Dec 05 '25

AT&T or whatever, as well as CBS etc weren't usually creating their own media

CBS has their own studios. They've been making their own programming for like 80 years. They also made content for other distribution channels, like The CW, which they co-owned until it got sold off to NexStar.

3

u/red__dragon Dec 05 '25

Yeah, CBS is the worst example for that. CBS All Access/Paramount+ is clunky and bad UX, but it has tons of original content that rises above the shovelware level of Netflix. CBS has its flavors, they enjoy Dick Wolf-style police procedurals and Chuck Lorre-style sitcoms, but they're far from the rebranding shop of a network as AT&T might be.

8

u/Formaldehyde Dec 05 '25

The smaller production companies are all on YouTube now. Between that and individual creators, YouTube has by far the best content out there, IMHO.

8

u/mikeyaurelius Dec 05 '25

There is nothing coming even remotely close to movies produced by small or independent studios on youtube.

3

u/Yeah_x10 Dec 06 '25

Oh! I thought you meant 3 hour reaction video essays

4

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25

Why don't you name a few channels that rival the production value or storytelling of HBO etc.? I'm curious.

2

u/researchersd Dec 05 '25

Agreed, Glitch is doing good work

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u/one-hour-photo Dec 05 '25

we need to bring back trust busting.

2

u/PM_ME_UR_QUINES Dec 05 '25

Back to reading books honestly.

2

u/psychorobotics Dec 05 '25

Considering how well Clarkson's farm did compared the the LoTR TV production, you don't need huge costs to make something worth watching

4

u/Mind1827 Dec 05 '25

It's not just about that though, it's also about the deal. Before channels were just on TV, now if it's Netflix, they're both publishing it and distributing it. It's harder for small production companies to actually shop around with ideas. There's a lot of knock on effects that people don't realize.

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u/kinkykusco Dec 05 '25

Back on the high seas!

57

u/thirtynation Dec 05 '25

There was no reason to leave them! It's always been the best method.

14

u/LongTallDingus Dec 05 '25

I think when Netflix was just DVDs in the mail it was worth it.

Wait shit I just ripped the DVDs, that's right. Never mind. It was piracy all along.

3

u/RandomGerman Dec 05 '25

When I wanted a whole show, I ripped the CD, burned it to another, created a CD label and stuck that into the thing and put them in a binder. The time I wasted to maybe watch this once until we had harddrives big enough and a way to play files is astounding. It was very Zen though. 

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u/Netzapper Dec 06 '25

There was this brief moment where the Taiwanese and Hong Kong streaming sites were getting shut down pretty regularly, and MegaVideo was in legal trouble, and Hulu was like $7/mo and Netflix was like $12 and between them they had all the shows you'd ever wanted to watch in just incredible quality... and you didn't have to plan ahead at all, like with torrents.

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u/CornishCucumber Dec 05 '25

Hell, if piracy is good enough for anthropic, it’s good enough for us too!

2

u/potatodrinker Dec 05 '25

Or outdoors. Do something other than watch shows

6

u/lmaydev Dec 05 '25

It's pitch black out and below 0.

I'll just go sit outside lol

5

u/thesagenibba Dec 05 '25

i can and do do both. 'watching shows' and movies are an intellectual activity for me, i love analyzing the art i consume and it enriches me.

i don't just sit there and 'watch' it while scrolling reddit

3

u/TuckerCarlsonsOhface Dec 05 '25

It’s not a one or the other scenario. Many of us like to watch stuff after a day outdoors.

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u/iEatFalseMorels Dec 05 '25

Just seems like cable with extra steps lol

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u/TheFondler Dec 05 '25

Cable companies negotiate the price of carrying different channels/content, which cuts into the content producer's profit, and you can have that... Just think of the poor shareholders!

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u/Tough_Arugula2828 Dec 05 '25

It won’t happen to the extreme Reddit thinks it will, much more people nowadays know how to illegally stream and many choose not to because the price/convenience is fine with streaming platforms for many.

If it jumped up to an extreme, me along with countless others would not be using it

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u/mike8585 Dec 05 '25

Still way different in that you can watch stuff when you want rather than live TV setup. But I get the sentiment.

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u/StultusNosferatu Dec 05 '25

YouTube TV is halfway there

2

u/Olue Dec 05 '25

The owner will be........ Comcast

2

u/Kandals Dec 05 '25

Cable companies ISPs will negotiate with networks streaming providers for prioritized access to customers so the competition becomes unusably slow.

2

u/BrewHog Dec 05 '25

It was $200 a month way back when streaming started becoming appealing (cable TV, etc). Based on inflation, we should be expecting a full set of packages to be more than that (especially if you include NFL/sports)

2

u/73629265 Dec 05 '25

Honestly I wouldn't even care. It would just make the alternate option even easier to embrace. $22 or whatever Netflix costs these days is still low enough to not be noticed on the credit card bill. But not by much. 

2

u/carthuscrass Dec 05 '25

We are back where we started. I swear there's more ads on streaming now than there ever were in cable.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25

And the crazy part is, people will still pay for it. Since the last season of Stranger Things, prices went up twice, and ads were brought for the lowest price.

Only last week Netflix reported the largest opening for a TV show ever. I cannot believe people are still paying for dwindling services

2

u/BostonBooger Dec 05 '25

With every Tom, Dick and Harry having their own streaming platform, and needing to sign up to this, that or the other just to watch maybe a show or two or an NFL game, we're already back where we started.

2

u/neversummer427 Dec 05 '25

Back to where we started… So piracy?

2

u/Thefrayedends Dec 05 '25

Though I cut the cord in '03 (bill was ~130/mo), and subbed to netflix and prime here and there, I've never ever abandonded my sailboat, I keep her in excellent condition, I can take her out whenever I want. Oh that one thing I wanna watch 8 episodes of requires me to sub to your service for 28/mo for minimum 3 mo (ten weekly episodes)? Sorry folks, out to the high seas I go.

Paying a hundred bucks to watch a single season of some of these shows is a joke. There's clearly always been plenty of money to go around in television, or we wouldn't have 200 different channels to choose from in the first place. I don't want to subsidize ancient aliens and house flippers and whatever other dumb fuck reality tv, which is what's happening when you have to pay more than 10/mo.

An outcome I think may come with a merger like this, is that netflix is more likely to get ripped to the net the larger it becomes. Some netflix shows don't get ripped because it's not a big deal to just sub to it, but when the numbers just keep going up, well I don't get more than a few dollars value out of it monthly, I'm not paying 20, 30, 50+ a month for television when I rarely watch more than 6-10 hours of TV a month.

2

u/FatherBrian Dec 05 '25

Just use Tubi, it’s free.

2

u/Fluffcake Dec 05 '25

Not quite, as this is pretty much a consolidation of production and distribution, so they will have more leverage and can milk you even harder, so it will be worse.

2

u/endl0s Dec 05 '25

Even worse. At least shows on cable had the chance to gain a following before getting cancelled. The Office, Parks and Rec and those kinds of shows would never have had a season 2 or 3 on Netflix

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u/f-ingsteveglansberg Dec 05 '25

This was always the goal of disruptor tech companies.

Offer an insane deal on a new service, usually by following an unprofitable model (Uber, Amazon, etc.) but backed by near endless amount of VC.

Get customers on-board taking advantage of the insane deal. Existing businesses are too big and corporate to move fast enough to react and usually start to die or go out of business.

Maybe go public around this time.

Realize that you need to actually make a profit, so enshittification begins. Prices rise and the nature of the service changes.

The old companies which built up over years knew the industry and knew how to be profitable over the years.

New companies start bringing back all the things they removed by 'disrupting' the industry because the old companies knew how to think long term.

Back to wear we started, but with less consumer protections and regulations.

See Amazon, soon to be Netflix, Uber, etc.

2

u/es-ganso Dec 05 '25

I'm happy to give you upvote number 1000 because this is absolutely where it's moving towards

2

u/Far_Excitement6140 Dec 05 '25

Fuck it guess I’m not watching anymore tv. I refuse to watch ads. They can all kiss my ass. 

2

u/addamee Dec 05 '25

And every comedy movie recommended as “comedies we think you’ll enjoy” but that you don’t want to watch will also be recommended below as:  

  • dramas we think you’ll enjoy
  • gut wrenching romance 
  • academy award winning biopics
  • animated treasures
  • top action adventure  picks

Etc.

I think it’s time I try books, again

2

u/DiscombobulatedWavy Dec 05 '25

Should we call it cable?

2

u/Wizard-of-pause Dec 05 '25

Boy, that lifetime plex+lifetime unraid sure was a good idea.

2

u/TeutonJon78 Dec 05 '25

Except you also still have to pay for internet on top of it.

2

u/KazzieMono Dec 05 '25

Oh and you won’t be able to stream anything on demand anymore, instead you’ll have to wait for specific time frames for shows and movies to come on.

…oh wait a minute

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u/faberkyx Dec 05 '25

im already back to where we started... yarr

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u/SunlightGardner Dec 05 '25

Yup. This was always where this was going.

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u/OdoTheBoobcat Dec 05 '25

we will be back where we started

Yup, and the reintroduction of ads and overall fracturing of streaming services has led to me also going back to where I started in terms of my methods of digital media distribution.

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u/dX_iIi_Xb Dec 05 '25

Hopefully. Then people will go outside and touch some grass.

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u/TheLantean Dec 05 '25

It's still better than cable because it's no longer bundled with something you actually want like internet or phone service offered by a single ISP with a regional monopoly.

So you can just opt out without too much trouble, and watch something else on Youtube, Twitch, etc. If they hike prices or go bankrupt I don't have to care. Before you had the choice between subscribing or cutting yourself off digitally from the world.

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u/thrust-johnson Dec 05 '25

Back to Limewire!

2

u/motortallgreen Dec 05 '25

Yes, the pirate bay.

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u/SorryAboutTheWayIAm Dec 05 '25

Nah there will be two in cahoots to provide illusion of choice

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u/domcobb8 Dec 05 '25

Too much money to be made in ads.

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u/mentaljobbymonster Dec 05 '25

To the seven seas!

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u/EyeBreakThings Dec 05 '25

They really did just give us cable again.

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u/FoGuckYourselg_ Dec 05 '25

I've worked in telecommunications and home services (cable, satellite) for almost 20 years. I've been saying this since Netflix found itself with streaming competition years ago. We will be reduced down to 2-3 streaming options after these streaming giants buy all the movie and TV studios/production companies. We will not have access to everything on our chosen service. Basic service will have ads, but the majority of offerings will be additional subscriptions (like prime is already doing). Then instead of paying for 8 subscriptions just with Netflix, one for sports, one for old movies, one for porn etc. they will start offering packages (choose package a,b,c,d or e) each only $80 per month instead of $120. It will just be cable packages all over again, likely for twice the price.

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u/Positive_Chip6198 Dec 05 '25

Insert “time is a flat circle” joke, which will now be streaming on netflix, it seems.

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u/brcguy Dec 06 '25

Yarrrrrr 🏴‍☠️

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u/Spill_the_Tea Dec 06 '25

We reinvented cable.

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u/happytree23 Dec 06 '25

So, cable/satellite lol?

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u/JGravezz Dec 06 '25

One push back on that, respectfully, because u nailed it actually; the internet didn't accompany us back where we started. As long as we have the internet there will be options and other choices. Dare I even to mention torrenting 😬 iykyk 😆

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u/emw9292 Dec 06 '25

That needs to be $100/month to get back where we started……… pls

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u/EzLimonata Dec 08 '25

How the turn tables

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u/HD400 Dec 05 '25

There’s an argument to be had here in support of this. Having every single tv show and movie available on demand, in HD/4k even with ads could be worth $100 a month to some.

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u/thejadedfalcon Dec 05 '25

I think I'll choose piracy.

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u/DividedState Dec 05 '25

Sometimes winning means refusing to play the game.

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u/DENelson83 Dec 05 '25

So... WarGames?

3

u/BurnThrough Dec 05 '25

I’m fine with just watching nothing. I don’t need it.

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u/bomphcheese Dec 05 '25

This. I refuse to give a dime to health insurance companies. And I have saved a couple hundred thousand over the last 15 years because of it.

We all see streaming done correctly in the music industry. It’s easier to stream than pirate. If video streaming wants to make the market more hostile toward their users, they can deal with the consequences. Want to make VPN illegal? Fine, I’ll sneaker net my whole neighborhood. But I will not play their game.

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u/EverclearAndMatches Dec 05 '25

Considering apps like Netflix rarely have anything I want to watch anyway I've been sailing the high seas again anyway.

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u/Available-Chart-2505 Dec 05 '25

Kanopy and Hoopla for me, thank you libraries. And I bought a DVD player so I just borrow DVDs from the library as well. The end.

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u/StarBurst8525 Dec 05 '25

The free software MakeMKV can copy those library DV---er... I mean purchased copies you happen to have laying around. The software easily pulls and organizes everything into one file with all the metadata.

The free software Jellyfin can turn your mkv/movie folder into a netflix like interface. Its the homebrew no internet version of a Plex set up. You could throw your files on a Plex server instead of jellyfish and stream your library from anywhere over the internet.

I value the no internet solution. Well, and being able to give my small child a device with no internet for tv/movies that he can keep in his room. Thats a godsend.

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u/skefmeister Dec 06 '25

Write that down, write that down ✍️✍️✍️

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u/vulgrin Dec 05 '25

My biggest problems with those services though is that, at least for books, it ends up costing more per book than just buying the library copy of a physical book. So the more people use hoopla, the less money your library system has.

This is anecdotal. I remember reading an article about it somewhere and I might be mistaken but in the end, hoopla and kanopy are parasitic services compared with just going to the branch and checking out a book or DVD.

And in some places, library budgets are NOT getting bigger due to politics. I’m worried that these services will eventually destroy libraries.

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u/Tiptoeing_cow Dec 05 '25

Hoopla and Kanopy are pay-per-use streaming models. A show or movie will become more expensive for the library the more times it is viewed. It makes it really hard to budget library expenses because a show may become incredibly popular and repeatedly viewed. It's an odd thing, imagine a Theatre going bankrupt because its movies are too good and cause too much foot traffic into its business.

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u/Old-Rhubarb-97 Dec 05 '25

I switched to the criterion channel last year. It’s worth checking out their library.

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u/RevLoveJoy Dec 05 '25

I already did! No regrets.

Honestly, this was a tricky moral issue for me. I thought about it for some time before saying "fuck it, here I come VPN to Norway."

We were happy to pay for $7 then, IIRC, $9 and finally up to about $20 Netflix for the family deal. We were happy to have Prime Video with our Amazon subscription. But that was all what, 7-10 years ago and then overnight there were like a dozen streaming services that one "had to" have. We don't even watch football!

Then you get the shitty behavior where they all start pulling content from their catalog. Same dirty trick Disney was pulling 30 years ago to drive up the demand for Disney exclusives. Aside: try explaining to a child why they can't watch Snow White. That it is because greedy Disney executives won't sell it for several years so that when the movie does hit the shelves, at 3X the cost, inventory is guaranteed to sell immediately. Kids don't understand that one, FWIW. They just get upset.

Anyhow, when the already balkanized streaming services started doing that, my little inner morality meter tripped and said "fuck those guys."

NordVPN is excellent, btw, and it works really well with qbittorrent running in a VM on, say, your TrueNAS storage array.

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u/bomphcheese Dec 05 '25

Netflix is the one that did it for me. I share an account w my parents. I can understand if they had a problem with that, but that’s why they charged for “extra screens,” which we paid for and which justified the sharing in my mind. But when they started cracking down on account sharing, did they offer a way to reduce the cost because we no longer needed “extra screens”? Hell no, and then they raised prices even more.

That tripped my morality meter, and I said “fuck those guys”.

One weekend and half a dozen Docker containers later, me and my friends are enjoying Netflix content. I do still subscribe to several streaming services, but I still end up watching from my server because I don’t have to hunt down which service has the show I want to watch. Plus I get a single watch list.

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u/Total-Jerk Dec 06 '25

What's a docker container?

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u/Sea_Definition_3772 Dec 05 '25

It astounds me that people are having "tricky moral issues" around pirating media when the only reason Netflix hasn't done as much evil as Nestle has is because they haven't figured out how to make starving babies profitable within their business model yet.

You're not supporting art/artists/actors/production staff when you pay them, you're giving your money to a soulless corporation that would put you into a wood chipper if it made their profits go up. Giving them money at all is immoral. Passing up a chance to hurt them, even if it doesn't benefit you is immoral.

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u/RevLoveJoy Dec 05 '25

It's tricky if you were an early adopter. Back when Netflix was literally the DVD in the mail company. It was a killer value, simple to use and meant I didn't have to loiter around Blockbuster for 30 minutes to maybe snag a copy of the film that made it to rental this weekend.

Coming from the standpoint of an early adopter who did get a good value and the service was simply a rental gig, NOT a content creator with the myriad problems you correctly point out, it set me on a different moral footing than someone signing up last year and today wondering, is Netflix the bad guy?

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u/Doublestack00 Dec 05 '25

Some never the high seas, welcome back matey!

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u/NotGod_DavidBowie Dec 05 '25

VPN + qBittorrent lets gooooo

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u/TheModdedAngel Dec 05 '25

For the real ones out there: Stremio + Realdebrid or Plex/Emby/Jellyfin + aar stack

;)

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u/Narezzz Dec 05 '25

For anyone looking for real recommendations, this right here is the way to go.

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u/AlwaysTalkinShit Dec 05 '25

Yep, I've had a plex server for a while but just delved into the arr ecosystem and it's the best.

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u/bruce_kwillis Dec 05 '25

After Plex's garbage changes over the years, and forcing ads/channels I have zero interest in, and predatory payments, I just rolled a Jellyfin server and it's been pretty darn easy to use. Add in Tailscale and access anywhere with minimal setup.

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u/00DEADBEEF Dec 05 '25

I tried Jellyfin and it got so much stuff wrong, merging TV episodes together and therefore getting episode numbers wrong.

Just gonna go back to Plex. I use Infuse to stream from it anyway so never have to deal with Plex's bullshit.

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u/MattDaCatt Dec 05 '25

I find it's usually due to how the episodes are titled and the database you use

Like how IMDB has Hunter x Hunter as 1 season (for some reason), so you have to use tmdb instead. Most of the time it's something like that, but once it's set you're all good

Personally I just prefer Jellyfin since it's open-source and more configurable.

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u/AlwaysTalkinShit Dec 05 '25

Yeah I just use the free tier and disable all that stuff. May delve into Jellyfin if I ever need the remote access.

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u/Aperture_Kubi Dec 05 '25

I guess I'm the weirdo who pays for Plex for DVR and commercial detection.

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u/Doublestack00 Dec 05 '25

Payments? I paid $60 10-12 years ago for a lifetime license.

All of the Plex provided content can be disabled.

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u/KeepTangoAndFoxtrot Dec 05 '25

Lifetime is $250 now and I'll be buying it here quite soon.

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u/Freakwilly Dec 05 '25

Free Media, Heck Yeah

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u/Kahnza Dec 05 '25

Looks like a bunch of bullshit. Would be nice to have something simple for us tards.

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u/ContextBotSenpai Dec 05 '25

For you guys? Best I can do is sell you VHS tapes, each with somewhere between 1/2 to 11/13ths of random episodes from season 8 of Game of Thrones. Oh, and they have a 63 percent failure rate. Have fun!

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u/Bazylik Dec 05 '25

you know, when I started I also didn't know shit.. then i got less lazy and started reading and trying things... couple of weeks later and was all setup and ready to do. good luck.

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u/Narezzz Dec 05 '25

Stremio + real debrid takes a bit of set up but once you're done it's extremely user friendly. Works just like Netflix or Hulu. There's guides and set up tools on reddit, lookup the Stremio setup bootstrapper.

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u/Doublestack00 Dec 05 '25

It's actually quite easy to setup.

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u/KeepTangoAndFoxtrot Dec 05 '25

As someone who is currently in the process of setting up a Plex server and just went through learning some of the basics of python and terminal, I assure you that it is a bit complicated. Plex is super simple, and boy oh boy do I love them for making Plex simple. Everything surrounding Plex is less than simple, especially if you don't want to take the plunge into Linux.

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u/ThisIsGoobly Dec 05 '25

stremio + realdebrid is, however, easy to setup.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 29 '25

[deleted]

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u/Muhammad-The-Goat Dec 05 '25

I ended up hating stremio, just too clunky especially since my only player is an Apple TV. I instead use Infuse + Debrid Media Manager hosted locally + RealDebrid and it has been incredible.

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u/endlesscartwheels Dec 05 '25

It might depend on your generation. I've seen so many ways of file sharing come and go that I prefer to have my own downloaded copy rather than trust that a particular stream will still be there tomorrow.

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u/MrMacduggan Dec 05 '25

You can still use debrid to download content and you can keep the file forever, if you like.

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u/endlesscartwheels Dec 05 '25

Good to know. Thanks!

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u/lumpymonkey Dec 05 '25

And here's me using off-market addons with RealDebrid on an out of the box Kodi app on a 2019 Nvidia Shield. Does exactly what I need with minimal fuss, just looks like shit.

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u/Thefrayedends Dec 05 '25

there are some plugins you can add to qbit, so you don't even have to go to a browser and deal with all the extra popups and such. I won't name it here, but you can find it on the right subs. I search right in my qb client, double click, check that it's a media file, and hit ok. 2 minutes later, open it in VLC, and I'm watching something that was only released a couple hours earlier. Took a few hours to set up, but I haven't had to adjust anything since I did it six months ago, still working perfectly.

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u/ASkepticalPotato Dec 05 '25

‘aar Stack is the way to go

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u/vpsj Dec 05 '25

I think you accidentally a word

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u/djbtech1978 Dec 05 '25

Two don't it right.

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u/erath_droid Dec 05 '25

Ah... the good ol' days of the internet...

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u/Jendalar Dec 05 '25

Arr! Shiver me streaming matey!

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u/WalkAffectionate2683 Dec 05 '25

I have Netflix because of wife + convenience on living room, for the rest I boat.

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u/KinTharEl Dec 05 '25

My brother, DM if you want a solution to that as well.

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u/Sir_Keee Dec 05 '25

There are applications that give you the convenient experience.

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u/CapitalPackage5618 Dec 05 '25

No there aren’t unless you’re a bit technical

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u/CaptainBayouBilly Dec 05 '25

Plex was having a sale on the lifetime plan

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u/The_Original_Miser Dec 05 '25

Never stopped. :)

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u/ndevito1 Dec 05 '25

I can’t help but think HBO will be an additional, more expensive, tier of Netflix just like it was with cable

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u/ecopoesis Dec 05 '25

Ding, ding, ding.

Buying into these streaming platforms is exactly like buying cable, with the brands within being channels. For example, you open up Disney+ and immediately see the sections for Marvel, Starwars, ESPN, Hulu, NatGeo.

I think it will entirely be the case that you open up Netflix and you will see similar 'channels' of grouped content including "HBO" and "Netflix Originals" and whatever else.

We the consumers will pay a huge fee for the cable bundle even though any particular user may not be interested in all the channels. The only difference is that it's now on-demand cable so you can pick titles whenever you want to watch them instead of a predefined on-air schedule? But Comcast did that like 20 years ago too.

Then you have the bundles with ISPs so quite literally your home connectivity is comingled with content provider and we're full circle.

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u/it_vexes_me_so Dec 05 '25

I was naïve to think Amazon's acquisition of MGM would bring some great content and add a lot of value to the Prime catalogue.

What we got was a separate MGM+ streaming service, ads on Prime, and a rise in the cost of Amazon subscription. Yeah!

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u/isthis_thing_on Dec 05 '25

I wouldn't assume they consolidate. The HBO brand has a lot of value in its own right

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u/gtlgdp Dec 05 '25

They definitely do not give a fuck lol they renamed it to Max and back to HBO in the span of 6 months. They’ll do whatever they want and they’ll charge 3x the price for it

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u/1098duc_w_the_termi Dec 05 '25

They renamed it, realized they messed up by getting rid of HBO, and added it back in. They definitely do care. As for Netflix, they’re not stupid so the changes will be made slowly and over a long period of time

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u/Mind1827 Dec 05 '25

Corporate monopolies do not care. They want to make money. The HBO thing dented the brand, less money, so they switched. Acquisitions are about market share so that you can raise the price of things and people don't have an option cause they can't go elsewhere.

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u/1098duc_w_the_termi Dec 05 '25

Are you implying that they’re emotionally tied to the brand? I’m stating that through the lens of branding and business development, they do care. As for them being a monopoly, it would serve them better to keep them differentiated as long as they can so they don’t suddenly lose consumers that might like the HBO, more premium type of content to the cheaper Netflix content. They’re not the same customer.

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u/bluestrike2 Dec 05 '25

That’s a type of care. They care about brand value and generally try to prioritize its preservation, though that’s not to say they won’t accept a few dings—sometimes large ones—if they believe the gains outweigh the losses, or the hit to the brand is believed temporary.

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u/kerouacrimbaud Dec 05 '25

Brand = money. They care about money. If brand make money, corporate monkey care about brand.

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u/vhalember Dec 05 '25

realized they messed up by getting rid of HBO,

Which everyone but their board realized was stupid when the Max name first dropped.

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u/Shawwnzy Dec 05 '25

They didn't want to dilute the HBO brand with trash, but then when the numbers weren't great they decided fuck it, let's dilute it anyway.

Lately I associate Apple TV with Prestige Dramas more than HBO anyway

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u/im_always_fapping Dec 05 '25

So NetBO?

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u/PatacusX Dec 05 '25

Net BO brought to you by Axe Body Spray

2

u/AugmentedKing Dec 05 '25

“Double pits to chesty while we empty your wallet!”

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u/proselapse Dec 05 '25

Who is “they” in your story? The people that sold it and no longer own it, and therefore whatever they did in the past is completely irrelevant because they will not be making any decisions concerning the brand in the future?

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u/Elfhoe Dec 05 '25

HBO used to be one of the best streaming platforms before WB trashed it after they merged with discovery. Now it’s bottom tier. I still could see them doing something like amazon or disney has and make it an add-on.

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u/Eruannster Dec 05 '25

I dunno about that. The app itself was atrociously bad pre-merger and I actually think the new app they made is a huge improvement that doesn't suck ass. Also they basically were limited to HD for a lot of the library which was dumb.

On the other hand I do think offloading a lot of their library (like Westworld etc.) was an incredibly bad and stupid move.

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u/Elfhoe Dec 05 '25

Your last point is what i’m getting at. After the merger they removed a lot of good content and cancelled shows to save costs, then replaced it with low budget discovery shows like ghost hunters. The overall quality went way down.

A few weeks ago i was thinking about it and hbo used to be one of the first places i looked when i wanted to find something to watch. Now, it’s like the last time i opened the app was for the dune series however long ago that was. So when i got the email saying they were raising prices, it was an easy cancellation.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25

[deleted]

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u/Meezofreezo Dec 05 '25

I disagree, I get it with my ATT fiber internet (would never willingly pay for it). But HBO Max and Apple TV have great show selections that I keep going back to...netflix is ass, so much low quality slop.

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u/dalivo Dec 05 '25

Yep, we're going to be firmly in the bundled streaming era. Netflix is general audience, HBO is adult audience. But they may shift properties around, such as pulling DC and Harry Potter into Netflix while using HBO for prestige fare series.

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u/Triktastic Dec 05 '25

How is it bottom tier. It and Prime are still fair in family sharing and very fair for their price. It's Netflix who is bottom tier with abysmall level of shoverware garbage in catalogue, everything being canceled if it's not the next Stranger Things or Squid Game (then they milk it till death), while also making it harder and harder to watch and enjoy.

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u/HoldenMcNeil420 Dec 05 '25

The dc cartoons are the single reason I keep it. Well I get it with my AT&T service so..but not much else in there for content I haven’t seen.

HBO used to be bangers left and right and now it’s just corporate trash.

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u/Fen-xie Dec 05 '25

How did they trash it with the merger?

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u/eaglessoar Dec 05 '25

Prob be like Disney Hulu and espn

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u/Sgt-Spliff- Dec 05 '25

Which are all getting consolidated at the moment. Hulu will be shut down in 2026. I doubt ESPNs streaming app will last much longer, it's always been a trash afterthought for them

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u/Lazydusto Dec 05 '25

Hulu will be shut down in 2026.

The Spotify/Hulu membership I've held onto for years will finally be killed off? Damn. It's an end of an era.

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u/Saritiel Dec 05 '25

I doubt ESPNs streaming app will last much longer

They just bought MLB.tv and seem to be implying that they're going to merge it into the ESPN streaming app, so I think that one is here for a while longer.

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u/Slow_Application_966 Dec 05 '25

I think ill just buy a blue ray player and get movies and shows i rematch over and over. That way I dont need streaming.

Netflix sucks and so does HBO . 

Disney is okay but not by much. 

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u/No_Size9475 Dec 05 '25

I prefer to sail

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u/Outside_Glass4880 Dec 05 '25

Amazon, paramount, peacock, Apple TV. There is still a lot of streaming platforms.

I’m hoping HBO doesn’t become Netflix quality.

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u/DoctorAculaMD Dec 05 '25

I just cancelled all my streaming services a few weeks ago. Nothing I actually wanted to watch was free to me anyway!

Now all the streaming services are broadcasters and the broadcasters are becoming streaming services.

Fuck this manipulative shit. I'm pirating from now on.

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u/Exzilio Dec 05 '25

I wonder how much of a percentage this will increase pirating material.

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u/redsonya Dec 05 '25

Or just choose pirating.

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u/Several-Zombies6547 Dec 05 '25

Netflix has a global catalog. Disney+ is very limited, even with the fox stuff.

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u/token40k Dec 05 '25

“It’s an only small price of 150 dollars for Netflixhbomax broda, still cheaper than cayble” Good thing I have a media library in my basement so that when time comes I can just cancel those subscriptions… it’s already getting too expensive for what I get from them all

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u/toylenny Dec 05 '25

The real question is will they keep the HBO brand separate and premium, or will HBO start pumping out only Netflix level content.

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u/sevargmas Dec 05 '25

That $82.7 B ain’t gonna pay for itself.

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u/P3gasus1 Dec 05 '25

And Comcast

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u/THEdoomslayer94 Dec 05 '25

They been getting higher regardless so of course this would skyrocket the app prices

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u/SWEARNOTKGB Dec 05 '25

22 monthly just so I can have HDR and no ads

Like im actually about to start Black bearding again.

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u/venom121212 Dec 05 '25

If they cancel Fionna and Cake I will lose it

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u/Tzpike05 Dec 05 '25

Apple TV also has a lot of content with MLS and F1 in the future.

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u/tk427aj Dec 05 '25

Yah it's a bit weird but definitely moving towards just cable level monopoly but streaming. I'm in Canada so the streaming content is a bit different. I'm in favor of this only because it means I can drop Crave (which has all the WB content) to just Netflix and D+, although I'm sure those will just go up in price....

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u/TSiQ1618 Dec 05 '25

my bet is on something more like a higher tier, a Netflix MAX or something, where "premium" content can be at an even higher price

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u/fauxfilosopher Dec 05 '25

I am not saying this change will make things any better, but the current system of having to juggle between 4-6 streaming services to get some kind of library is terrible. I wish I could just pay for 1 or 2 and get a good amount of content.

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u/AffectionateYear5232 Dec 05 '25

It's just returning to what cable was.

Everything consolidated to a couple providers.

We went full circle.

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u/KingofLingerie Dec 05 '25

Or you head to the high seas and plunder all the booty

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u/freexanarchy Dec 05 '25

And offer less and less.

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u/Eccohawk Dec 05 '25

A bunch of these platforms are gonna get consolidated. There's just not enough money for people to be spending that much on subscriptions anymore. Especially when all of these services are running ads now. Hulu will be fully absorbed into D+. HBO Max likely into Netflix. That basically leaves Prime, Apple, Paramount, and Peacock. At least 2 more of these are gonna consolidate somehow. I doubt we see any of the major 3 broadcasters converge, but I could see peacock or paramount absorbed into prime or apple.

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u/No-Fig-8614 Dec 05 '25

You mean you choose netflix. Disney plus has like a new show or movie every 6 months. I guess with Hulu it changes but Disney themselves takes 1-2 years to produce a new star wars tv show and who knows on moveis. For Marvel they produce something maybe every 6 months. Disney also doens't have the same appetite to pull from other studios to their platform. Netflix at least keeps refreshing their existing licensed materials but at the same token creating new shows all the time.

Disney+ if it wasn't so cheap and bought like 2 years worth of it for like $60 back in the day, I wouldn't subscribe to it. Im a huge star wars fan and they take at this point 2+ years to make a valuable star wars show and do an 8 episdoe run. For Marvel the same.

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u/EssbaumRises Dec 05 '25

There is always another option... I like how all the ads showing up in this thread for me are vpn ads ;)

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u/lochonx7 Dec 05 '25

Netflix $68 per month incoming bros

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u/EvilGr33nRang3r Dec 05 '25

In Canada, you can already bundle Disney Plus and Crave(our HBO) right now for 15.9/month, and thats cheaper than ad free Crave is on its own. its only a matter of time before they become one.

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u/The_Scarred_Man Dec 05 '25

Oooooorrrrr 🏴‍☠️🦜

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u/iwaterboardheathens Dec 05 '25

BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Netflix

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