Netflix News

Everyone’s favorite streaming media service, Netflix, has decided that they don’t have enough TV shows (which I completely agree with) so what do they do? Announce that they are willing to pay $75,000 to $100,000 per episode!! Yes you read correctly. Per EPISODE not per season. One would think that when they are offering so much money they will get what they want immediately but of course that's not how it works. Let’s say that a show has 24 episodes (can you guess what show I’m talking about) per season and if Netflix is willing to pay $100,000 per episode, that amounts to $24,000,000! To help put this in perspective, as of December 2nd Netflix has spent a total of $350 million dollars on media rights for the movies and TV shows they stream. So in other words if Netflix spends about $24 million on a TV show season, they could only get 14 seasons for $350 million. Also another piece of data that may be helpful is that Netflix spends about $500 to $600 million on shipping per year!

 As always money is the root of all problems and when a huge amount of money like this is involved chaos ensues, in this case, over whether the TV network or the company that actually made the show gets the money. The TV networks says they have the rights to the “in-season distribution” and the production companies say they own the shows and they can do whatever they want with them including selling the rights to Netflix. So at least until this debate is worked out, Netflix’s buying spree may have to be put on hold for a bit.

No one is sure whether the $100,000 per episode went through or not but it seems that somehow or another Netflix has managed to sign a contract with the Disney-ABC Television Group granting Netflix the rights to keep a couple shows they already have through their streaming service but it also grants them full access to older shows. Some of the shows on the list from ABC include Scrubs (YES!), Ugly Betty, Reaper, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters. There are also many shows for the younger audiences out there from Disney such as Phineas and Ferb, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody and Hannah Montana.

In other random Netflix news, Barry McCarthy has decided to resign from his position of CFO of Netflix after a decade so that he can "pursue broader executive opportunities outside the company.” “HA! WHAT AN IDIOT!” is what I am thinking right now and I’m sure many of you agree with me. Netflix is the biggest streaming media service available right now and is showing no signs of slowing down. Every major platform available right now has a Netflix application including iOS, Android, PS3s, Wiis, Xbox 360s, many TVs and many many more. I'm not sure where McCarthy thinks he is going to get a better job than the CFO of Netflix but I guess it’s his choice….