A Netflix-Owned Warner Bros. Would Still Produce Shows for Apple
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While it’s still an open question who will end up owning Warner Bros. once the dust settles, the good news is that it doesn’t look like Apple TV has anything to worry about — at least not in terms of its original content.
Last week, Netflix announced an $83 billion agreement to acquire the Warner Bros. streaming and studio business, which would not only include HBO and HBO Max, but also the company’s film and TV studios. Warner Bros. has long been one of the “Big Five” in Hollywood; the acquisition would put Netflix in a much more powerful position in the market, but it also raised questions about how it would deal with producing original content for competitors, such as Apple TV.
The general sense was that Netflix wouldn’t likely want to upend things too much. The company said in its press announcement that it “expects to maintain Warner Bros.’ current operations and build on its strengths, including theatrical releases for films,” and many industry watchers predicted that the deal would be under enough regulatory antitrust scrutiny without Netflix muddying the waters by cancelling deals with its rivals. Still, those were merely educated assumptions.
The good news is that Netflix has now given us a much straighter answer, right from the mouth of co-CEO Ted Sarandos. According to Deadline, Sarandos acknowledged to attendees at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference that Warner Bros. studios “produces and licenses content to third parties,” adding that while “We were never in that business. We are now.”
This means not only continuing the production of Ted Lasso season 4 and beyond, but also Apple TV’s Shrinking and content for NBC, CBS, Bravo, and the CW, including The Voice, Brilliant Minds, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, All American, Abbot Elementary, The Bachelor franchise, and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
It’s also notable that Warner Bros. Television Group is now led by Channing Dungey, a former Netflix VP of original content who was responsible for bringing in key shows and talent like Bridgerton, Emily in Paris, and the creators of Game of Thrones on board.
When you get under the hood, that’s a really healthy business. It’s not as big as ours, and that’s why we haven’t really focused that much on doing it. The growth opportunity on our core business has been greater. But now in this transaction, we own that business, and Channing and that group do a phenomenal job, and we want them to continue to do that phenomenal job.
Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO
While Dungey is also chairwoman of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Linear Networks — the cable TV division that will go its own way after the deal — Sarandos’ comments imply that she’ll stay with the television studio side, rejoining Netflix when and if the acquisition goes through.
However, that acquisition is far from a done deal. An acquisition or merger of this size requires the approval of the US government, and politicians and regulators on both sides of the aisle already seem cool to the deal. President Donald Trump has said that the combined size of Netflix and Warner Bros. “could be a problem,” but he also praised Sarandos as having done “one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies.”
This makes it difficult to know where the Trump administration will settle on this, but it seems Netflix will face an uphill regulatory battle even if that were the only factor. However, there’s another elephant in the room in the form of Paramount Skydance, which countered the Netflix offer with a hostile bid, offering $108 billion for the entire Warner Bros. conglomerate: streaming, studios, and the television networks that are expected to be split off from the Netflix deal. That deal would face the same kind of regulatory scrutiny, but it’s also coming from a company with notable ties to the White House via the Ellison family, with backing from an investment firm run by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law.
The entire process will almost certainly take months to navigate and settle, so it’s going to be business as usual for HBO Max subscribers and Apple TV’s studio productions until that happens. However, at least fans of Ted Lasso and Shrinking won’t need to worry about their favorite shows going anywhere; Netflix has said it plans to maintain the status quo, and Paramount is already in the studio business and would have no motivation to change things.
