The mogul’s 'open for business' mantra has led Warner Bros. Discovery to aggressively pursue rights deals — even for its core brands.
“We have a ton of content that has been sitting idly for just purely principle reasons,” WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said at a Bank of America event Sept. 8. “is a great [example]: It is a nonexclusive window [and] we look at it as what we are giving up versus what additional revenue we are generating,” the CFO added, noting that “there are positive knock on effects on our own platforms as well.
And while it isn’t going to be part of any larger live-action DC universe, Batman is still some of DC’s most popular IP. “Once you decide your streaming ambitions are not your ‘north star,’ why not license as much as possible?” ” Lightshed analyst Rich Greenfield wrote in an Aug. 10 research note. “Catalog only has value to streaming services if you can drive meaningful daily time spent where subscribers are getting lost in your service.
The decision is a major shift for the company, which under Jason Kilar and AT&T withheld as much content as possible for HBO Max to rapidly grow its subscriber base. Of course, Warner Bros. is no stranger to licensing content, with its TV division having long been one of the most aggressive about selling shows to other networks and platforms. But the message from the C-suite seems to be clear: There’s a new sheriff in town, and they are willing to deal even more. It’s also a stark contrast to Disney, which has leaned into controlling all of its content.
At the Code Conference on Sept. 8, former CEO Bob Iger recalled selling Disney’s movies to Netflix so they could learn about streaming distribution. “It was very interesting to see as Netflix grew — and consumption of our movies on their platform grew — what might be possible,” he said.
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