By We all know that Netflix is bringing in quite a lot of cash, but something tells me they aren’t quite aware of the value of it. Why do I think this? According to Gizmodo, Netflix claims that they want to get more new content for its streaming service, particularly episodes of currently airing TV shows from the latest season. In order to get this, they’re offering $75,000-$100,000. Per episode.
$75,000-$100,000 per episode.
That means one expensive episode is worth as much as my college loans. That’s crazy.
So far, Netflix has only spent $350 million (“only,” ha) on acquiring the rights to stream movies and TV shows. However, a war is brewing between content creators and TV channels over who has the rights to the show’s distribution. Networks and cable channels claim that they have distribution rights during a show’s in-season airing, while content creators think that they own those rights. They could sell those episodes to Netflix and stream those episodes as soon as the hour after they aired on TV. Which, of course, I’m all for, not liking to be held down by petty things like “scheduling” but not being bothered enough to acquire a DVR.
Until those rights are figured out, however, Netflix won’t be paying out ridiculous sums of money. Still, such a move may have ramifications for the film industry. If this offering goes through, I could easily see Netflix starting to make similar offers to movie studios to get their films on the service quickly once they’ve gone out of theaters. As it stands, film companies are so afraid of rentals and streaming that they have silly rules in place to keep the content out of Netflix’s hands for a certain number of days. But money talks, and they may decide that a ridiculous payout is a much safer bet than hoping a few more people buy a hard copy.
[via Gizmodo]