Netflix announced the blockbuster deal with Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday morning. It has agreed to buy the legendary TV and movie studio and assets like the HBO Max streaming service for $72 billion.

  • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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    14 hours ago

    Soooo, does that mean consumers have one less streaming service to subscribe to or would Netflix just do a price hike to make up for it?

    • Foni@lemmy.zip
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      13 hours ago

      Oh yes, market concentration definitely improves the user experience in the long run.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Probably like Disney/Hulu

      They’ll try a bundle deal to see if people pay for it, then if not slowly bleed shows from one service to another.

      Maybe eventually combine them but they’ll try to keep paying for both as long as possible

  • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    This means the would-be buyer will pay WBD billions of dollars if the deal is not completed.

    That’s critical because the biggest X factor is regulatory approval. The Trump administration will review any transaction between Netflix and WBD, and some analysts expect a political and legal battle to ensue.

    We’re about to see how much Netflix wants to kiss the ring and what lines they’ll cross for Trump.

    • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Larry Ellison also wants Warner Discovery. He’s kissed the ring so much that Trump has to wash the slobber off.

      So we’ll see. Larry Ellison is the worst option here, even worse than media consolidation and price hikes, because Ellison wants to be the new Rupert Murdoch.

      • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
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        13 hours ago

        Yeah, I’m already done with Trek under the Ellison name.

        I’ve cut off all these services already though, as an F U to the US threatening to annex my country, and virtually no Americans standing up against that.

  • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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    13 hours ago

    As bad as this reality is, my first thought is at least it isn’t going to Larry Ellison and Paramount. Coming from Zaslov, this seems like about the same level of terrible.

    • pandapoo@sh.itjust.works
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      13 hours ago

      I think it’s actually worse.

      I don’t see how this doesn’t lead to the removal of the HBO brand from the marketplace, and the transfer of all IP, to Netflix’s algorithm driven slop machine.

      Both were shitty options, this is all speculation, but something tells me that at least HBO would have survived a Comcast or Paramount acquisition, and not been converted into whatever the hell you want to call Netflix’s category of entertainment.

      I only hope is that this is killed by regulators, and somehow Paramount and Comcast aren’t able to put together new bids.

      But, I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen.

      • SuiXi3D@fedia.io
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        13 hours ago

        Not enough people give a shit for that to ever happen. Hell, my wife (as much as I love her) doesn’t care. I’ve explained and shown her how much Netflix sucks but her desire to watch crappy Korean dubs without thinking too hard about how to do so takes precedence. Never mind my mother who is too old and stubborn to ever change.

        But in the very least the subscription fees aren’t coming out of my account, and that’s really all I can do.

  • barnaclebutt@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Yeah, awesome! Super cool. Now Netflix will have more of my favourite content. Surely, they won’t send it in a 720 slideshow then raise the prices by 1.5x because they have a greater monopoly, right? Right? Animaniacs!

  • Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    How in the ever living fuck does Netflix have the money to buy Warner Brothers? If anything you would think it would be the other way around.

  • Gary Ghost@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    The best way to download movies and shows is to get a VPN, I use airvpn. Install qbittorrent, enable the search function in settings. Update the search torrents, just click the update button. You can download just about anything. My Internet is very slow, especially for uploads but I wait for the share ratio to reach 3 before removing the torrent . This makes sure everybody gets a chance to download. I use alternative down&upload rates in the settings.

    I use jelly fin to stream to all of my devices including TVs and tablets. We don’t need Netflix

  • SuiXi3D@fedia.io
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    13 hours ago

    Well shit. There goes my hopes of HBO eventually getting the rights to The Witcher and doing it right.