• Studios and production houses are bringing content back to Netflix as the realisation sets in that running a streaming platform is tough and expensive.
• Several shows that were previously removed from Netflix as studios launched streaming services, are returning.
• While not a mass migration, hopefully this change in attitude means that we won’t need multiple streaming subscriptions anymore.

You may be aware of carcinisation in which a non-crab evolves a crab-like body. It’s an oddity of nature that big tech mimics when it reinvents busses, trains and sailboats every other week. Now, streaming platforms are reportedly learning that licensing content is a good way to make money.

In the before times, when piracy was more popular than Netflix, studios and production houses licensed their content out to broadcasters. This meant that these entities could make more money from a single show than if they broadcast it exclusively on their channels.

Fast-forward to the present day, every production house and its dog has a streaming platform asking consumers to dip deeper into their pockets to access a slice of the content they enjoy. As it turns out, that wasn’t a good move for these production houses.

As reported by The New York Times, the likes of Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are reconsidering their “do not sell to Netflix” stance. The fact of the matter is that there are now too many streaming platforms and consumers simply aren’t interested in platforms that only offer content from one production house.

Mind you, we won’t see Disney suddenly sell its Avengers Saga to Netflix anytime soon but the likes of Dune, Young Sheldon and Prometheus highlight how studios are rethinking content exclusivity.

“Licensing is becoming in vogue again. It never went away, but there’s more of a willingness to license things again. It generates money, and it gets content viewed and seen,” content sales president at Warner Bros. Discovery David Decker was quoted as saying.

The New York Times says that in the coming months shows such as How I Met Your Mother, White Colour and Lost will be returning to Netflix in 2024, after some of these shows were removed when Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery decided to launch bespoke platforms.

The fact is that these companies saw the success of Netflix and figured they could make more money if they charged their subscription fee for access to their content. While that may have worked in 2020 when we were all sitting at home binge-watching series between meetings, it doesn’t work anymore.

Earlier this year Netflix reported that growth in the US and Canada had all but stopped, and it’s a platform that boasts a variety of content from a variety of studios. That was what made Netflix special and now, years after millions of dollars have been ploughed into ailing streaming platforms, have studios realised that maybe, licensing content was the best way to enter the market.

While we’re not seeing a mass migration back to Netflix just yet, much like carcinisation, we suspect that before too long, content will flood back to Netflix. That or we just create a single subscription that folks can pay to watch a constant stream of shows and movies. We could call it “cable” or even better, “satellite TV”.