ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - NETFLIX Takes Over Warner Brothers: EXPLAINED - The End of the DCU?

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

ScreenCrush The Podcast tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals.

And we are here to talk about the Netflix Warner Brothers deal. So I think it's a really bad thing. And I'm kind of worried about saying it's a bad thing because it's sort of like that Simpson's episode where Kent Brockman thinks the world's been taken over by ants. The last thing I want to do is offend our new masters at Netflix. So what we're going to do is run through this deal and give you all the information and let you know what's happening.

Then you can tell me and Colton, who's going to join us in just a second. if you think it's a good idea or a bad idea, or if it means the DCU is actually going to be kaput because it doesn't meet Netflix's standards. So in case you're just hearing about this for the first time, Warner Brothers Discovery has been a company that's basically been in trouble for decades. It seems like they've done one bad merger after another.

Zazlov was brought on his CEO. He did this huge cost-cutting measure. He did things like taking Westworld off of HBO, what was it called? I think it was HBO Go back then. but he did that to write it off on the company's tax form. He refused to put out Warner Bros. V. Acme and Backgirl and all these other things. And now the company's been up for sale for a while. There were three potential suitors, Netflix, Comcast, which also owns Universal and NBC and a few other TV networks.

And also Skydance Media, which just bought Paramount. Now, what you should know here is that Paramount and Warner Brothers also both own a lot of TV networks. With Warner Brothers, you have CNN, you have Cartoon Network, TNN, basically all the old Ted Turner stations, TBS, things like that. And Skydance owns Paramount. So, of course, you have Paramount Plus, the streamer, you have the Paramount Network, Comedy Central, lots of other big TV stations there. The interesting thing about this is that Paramount wanted to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, Lockstock, and Barrel. They wanted to buy all the TV networks. Now, that company, Skydance Media, is owned by a conservative family called the Ellisons.

They're very close to the Trump administration. So there was some speculation they wanted the networks so they could turn CNN into a different, like a rebranded conservative outlet like Fox News, which is pretty interesting. I bring up the politics because this is not a done deal. And we're going to talk about that a little bit later. So now what's happened is Netflix does not want to buy the TV stations. They're not into that. They just want the movie studio Warner Brothers. and they want the streaming service, HBO and HBO Max.

The TV networks are going to be turned into a different company called Discovery Global, and maybe that company will be up for sale, and Skydance will get what they want without creating this movie studio monopoly between Paramount and Warner Brothers. The money proposed here is enormous. Remember a few years ago, Disney bought Fox for $70 billion. This buyout has a total enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion. Now, there's a lot of hurdles to clear because any time you do a big purchase like this on the government level, there's antitrust laws that are there to prevent one company from holding a monopoly.

So, for example, you don't want there to be like one egg distributor in the country because then that distributor can raise the price of eggs as high as they want. Although I'm pretty sure that actually is the case, but that's for a different video on a different channel. And, you know, when Disney bought Fox, the same fears were there that they're going to, you know, be calling one of the oldest studios that we're going to get less variety. And, you know, after Predator Badlands, some people say that's come to fruition because that movie's not a rated R film. It's actually could just pass as a Disney movie. I really liked it. Some people didn't. And now, Netflix, which is the number one streamer, has just bought the number three streamer.

And that's actually huge. That has a lot of implications for a monopoly. A lot of antitrust advocates are already talking about it. Elizabeth Warren gave a statement. Representative Mike Lee, I think who's a Republican, gave a statement about it. And even like Jane Fond is chiming in. So now I want to bring up my good friend Colton Ogburn.

Colton, this is the biggest, most seismic entertainment news that's happened since Robert Downey Jr. was revealed as Dr. Jim. I mean, you can't understate how huge this is. What are your thoughts on it? I'm not as doom and gloom about it as I think I would have been a few weeks ago. I think our biggest concern, I know your biggest concern going into it was, oh no, a streaming company is buying a classic movie studio that this is going to spell doom for like the theatrical releases, right?

I think Netflix in recent months has shown that they are more open to, you know, putting stuff in theaters. We're seeing Knives Out, have an exclusive run. I think they're putting the Stranger Things finale in theaters. So I'm a little bit more comfortable with it now. I think it's better than Skydance. You know, take the politics out of it, whatever your political leanings are.

I don't want the idea of any entity, like corporation, being able to, like, utilize their, you know, buddy-buddiness with any administration. to do corporate consolidation. And I hadn't thought about Ryan. You know, I was thinking to myself, well, Netflix, they're not really a movie studio. They're a streamer.

So I'm more open to- They do make films, sure. Yeah, yeah. But like, you know, like a class, like Paramount. I've never liked the idea of Paramount and Warner Brothers being under one thing. That just seemed like too much. But you just mentioned that the number one streamer

is buying the number three streamer. And that is kind of problematic. I think it could there are too many streaming services so I do kind of like the idea of maybe putting some of them together and kind of like I think we're on this path going back to like OG cable is probably it is beyond yeah but I I don't that's what Amazon's tried to do too by consolidating them until yeah my preference was Apple I think Apple would have been the best if somebody had to buy it I think a tech company like Apple who is worked with Warner Brothers and it's just getting into it, making movies and stuff.

I think that would have been the best. But Netflix wasn't at the bottom of the barrel for me in terms of who got it. Well, here's the thing about Netflix, right? And I want to go over more facts of the case, but first I want to present why this could be a really bad thing. So Quentin Tarantino has really been on a tear on these podcasts lately. And by the way, Justice for Paul Dano. Did you see he met my guy Paul Dano?

Where the hell? What did he do to you at a party? Did he like put socks on a woman or something? Because like there's something he did that gravely offended Tarantino. But anyway, sorry, I'm side note, sidetrack there. So Tarantino said the last year for cinema was 2019 because after 2020, this huge shift to streaming happened. And I think what we're seeing is this, you know, years ago, right, whenever sound films first started, that created this marriage between corporations because sound film was more expensive.

and film where bank were to make talkies they had to have more expensive equipment so banks had to start buying up studios ever since then corporations have been closely intertwined with the art of movie making so you know when we talk about executives and suits that's what we're talking about now because like marshall mcgluen said the medium is the message the way we consume media defines who we are that has changed drastically i mean a few years ago there was an episode of parks and where she was trying to save a video store. And one of the guys in the store says, what does it matter? I'm watching Iron Man 2 on my phone right now.

So the second that we were able to use these to consume media, that changed the game. Now I think what's happening is the tech companies have like social sites and things have this goal of we don't want people away from their device. We want them constantly engaged. I mean, you guys have noticed when you go on YouTube now, your page has so many YouTube shorts on it, even on the desktop, because they're trying to keep us as tied to our devices as possible.

Netflix understands that most of the time when you watch Netflix, you're also tied to your phone and you're doing second screening. And they've actually released to their screenwriters guidelines. I forget where my source was for this. So I'm sorry if I paraphrase this wrong, but they've released guidelines that they want more people to speak aloud what's happening in the scene so people can watch their shows or movies while they're watching dishes. Now, this doesn't mean that the next HBO show, for instance,

is going to have this put in there. I think that when they bought Warner Brothers, they bought the brand of HBO. I think HBO is still going to be airing weekly shows. HBO Max, or sorry, whatever they call it now, the direct-to-streaming services like the DCU shows, that's a whole other thing I want to talk about in just a bit. So that's my problem with it. I think Netflix is at the forefront of producing crap.

And I've got a statement here from Ted Sarandos. Sorry, go ahead. No, you go ahead and then I'll chime in. What's the statement? Well, he said, you know, our mission's always been to entertain the world by combining Warner Brothers' incredible library of shows and movies. And then he lists a few of them like Citizen Kane and Harry Potter, etc. Together, we can give audiences more of what they love and help to find the next century of storytelling. So that tells me they're more interested in the light. They're very interested in the library, you know, because Netflix is always, you always had Netflix because you could watch everything on there.

And they've chipped away at that over the other companies have chipped away at that. So they want to reestablish that. He also said, in a world where people have so many choices, more choices than ever on how to spend their time, we can't stand still. We need to keep innovating and investing in stories that matter most to audiences. And that's what this deal is all about. again, it's all about keeping us tied to the screen with their app.

And also, they did say, in fairness here, Netflix states they expect to maintain the current operations at Warner Brothers, including theatrical releases of films. We'll see. And also, this is just a side note. If anything stops Netflix for making the deal, they have to pay a breakup fee of $5.8 billion. And analysts say it's a win-win for WB because the company wasn't doing well.

Anyway, so Zazlov, I'm sure, makes a huge bonus off this. It means we don't have to hear anything about that guy anymore. Go ahead. Well, they're doing a lot better than they were. Like, when they bought AT&T, they bought Warner Brothers from AT&T. They've really made a comeback thus far. I think that's what Zazov has been doing is they essentially brought him in to flip it. Like, and what's funny is, oh, no, I think you're right.

Yeah. What's funny is, I think, don't they own like HGTV, which with all those house flipping shows, they should have done one of Zas, flipping. Yeah, thanks. Yeah. I think you're right that Netflix, it's pretty much a, it's an algorithm. They have an algorithm that says, we just need to put out content for people to turn on the TV. And I think there is a marketing.

Content, though. You know, like content's such a dirty word. That's not a story. That's not entertainment. But I think they are also smart enough to realize, yes, we need the mindless stuff that can just be turned on. And, you know, I kind of feel that way because like if I'm cleaning house or something, I don't want to turn on a show that, you know, that I might, that I really, really care about, don't want to miss some stuff.

So I do think that there's a place there for television that you can kind of half-ass watch. But in order for them to truly become extremely like a profitable, successful, like company that people want to spend their money on, they also have to have that prestige programming. And I think that's where HBO Warner Brothers comes in and kind of, and can kind of be like they're more top tier, not quite as much in terms of quantity, but really focus on the quality stuff. As far as the theatrical release, I am scared, but we have to keep in mind, Superman was in theaters for like a month, and then they dropped it on HBO.

So I don't know that it's Netflix that is necessarily the problem. It's just a 2020, COVID really. People where they are and people aren't going to the theater as much. But why aren't people go? It's kind of like it goes both ways. Why aren't people going to the theaters as much? One, you know, it's expensive. But two, people, they have trained the audience to, well, the movie's going to be out in a few weeks and we can just all watch it at home for the price of, you know, one streaming thing for a month worth of streaming instead of going and buying four tickets at a movie theater.

So I don't like that the CEO of Netflix is saying, oh, we're going to meet consumers where they're at. and we feel like we're isolating consumers. No, there needs to be like a significant, I think, span of time between something leaving theaters and when it drops on streaming, so you can actually get people to go to the theaters and see it. Like, I do not understand that argument at all. So that is the one bad thing I think about Netflix getting it. But I don't know that that would have been unique to Netflix.

I think COVID was the best thing that ever happened for the streaming industry. Sure. Oh, I mean, and COVID is a big part of. of why we're having this conversation right now because it meant so many people watched Wanda Vision and the Mandalorian that the channel, our channel was really able to take off. And by the way,

haven't gotten into the comments yet, but thank you guys so much for supporting the channel and coming in to listen to the live stream. We've still got a lot more to talk about, but keep the comments coming and I'll, you have super chats, I'll get to those in a second. The thing is you have to understand,

though, about the theatrical releases. Like, Netflix could have made so much money off the Knives Out movies that last two if they just would have done an actual theatrical release. but they're not interested in that, right? They'll do something really short for Oscar season. They'll do big cities, but they don't want to do a big rollout. And part of this has to do with their co-founder and former CEO and chief content officer,

Reed Hastings, right? So Reed Hastings, sorry, I'm sorry, I'm wrong, Ted Serendos, right? Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Netflix has talked about how his father had a strong preference for watching movies at home because he couldn't go two hours without a smoke in a movie theater. So Ted started off, like, he doesn't have that emotional connection to the cinema and the theater that maybe a lot of us do. For him, it was more about TV and home and being together. And some of my favorite memories are watching movies at home with my family. My response to that is, then, okay, wait for the movie to come out on home media.

You know, like I hear people. But that's what I mean, though, is that Netflix, their core of who they are is we're a streaming. service, right? I don't know if they actually have interest in big tent pole. I mean, the tent pole theatricals, I think they'll do. Like Superman made 600, 700 million almost. They're not going to turn that down. No. But they're not going to make it a priority. The data shows that when a film gets a theatrical release, it performs better on streaming. So there's that side of it as well. Yeah. Yeah. So I. Yeah. And it's like they're allergic to DVD sales. Yeah. It's like they're allergic to money. I don't know. Apparently not. I mean, they've got a

money to just buy Warner Brothers. So I guess they're doing something right. But, yeah. Well, we got a few more fact-based things we want to go through here. So now the big thing for them is they do have to go through regulatory concerns. Normally, it's, you know, the administration will review it for antitrust. In this case, you know, you think back like the Trump administration has, they favored Paramount in the Skydance deal. They favored Skydance to buy Paramount. Again, because the family has close ties, we can presume. There have been other examples of other mergers needing to go through like CBS in 60 minutes, out of court. Some people think it was to clear the way. So they do have to clear that. But I think that's kind of going to be a done deal. It would be a huge amount of corruption

and cronyism if they just favored their friends over the Netflix deal when so much more money has been offered according to reports. Let's talk about real quick. Let me just check the comments, see what you guys are saying in here. Let's see. Predictably, a lot of politics stuff. We're not going to get into the politics on here. There's other channels for that. We're just kind of stating the facts and what's in the ether.

I voted for Ross. A lot of people on here saying that things are crap, that Netflix puts out crap. Netflix does put out great stuff. I mean, look, Stranger Things is still great. Frankenstein's great. But they also put out a lot of really disposable things. You know, like their motto is your greenlit. Not that Warner Brothers has the best track record.

either. Yeah, it's too much. It's like the polar opposite of what Apple has. Like, that's another reason I wanted Apple to get it is because they have like such a small catalog. Netflix, their catalog is just already gigantic. And you also put, well, I mean, Warner Brothers has a huge catalog too, just that it's not current stuff, you know. Now let's get into, I want to talk about how this is actually going to affect the stuff that we care about. Before I do that, I just want to really quick remind you guys. We've only got two days left in our Black Friday sale at our merch store and we bring up some of these graphics so you can see what we're talking about here. Bear with me for just a second. We've got shirts like, that's my secret. I'm always working.

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It's 40% off all apparel. It's just basically we're giving the stuff away. If you've always wanted to buy a Screencrush shirt and you were like, well, I don't know, it's expensive. This is the time. The deal is going to last just a couple more days. Yeah, get yours today. I'm really proud of those new designs and plus all the other, the it designs that we did. My contact has got shaken loose.

Don't you hate that? Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah, it's okay. It'll settle itself. So let's talk about this. Let's talk about the actual repercussions. You know, we can theorize, we can talk politics and stuff.

Let's talk about what actually gets done. And I want to remind you guys, you don't have to. I'm going to get to the comments that I can. But if you do, if you can, throw us a super chat and we'll answer. For instance, Jerry Roth, 5149 gave us $5, baby. That's almost enough to rent one of these movies. He says, we will still have movies in theaters. This doesn't help the physical media is dying argument, which isn't true either.

Love you guys, but this is a lot. I think there's going to be fewer theatrical releases, is just because of what Colton said. You've got to meet people where they are. And I think Netflix is still going to put out your Barbies, your big films like that. But primarily they want to keep people at home and watching the next movie on Netflix.

They don't want you watching the movie in the theater and then going out after and enjoying life. I want to hear something before we get into this, Colton, before we get into the next phase of this, earlier, I did something I haven't done in a long time. I accidentally left my phone at home and I was going for 80 glorious minutes. I had to find my way home by using the sun.

And I had to note which way the sun was and go, well, that way's north. I had to turn on the radio for entertainment and then find a station that I like. And I didn't have any pressure to get in touch with anybody or check work or anything. That's how life used to feel before the Netflix and social media companies started to take over our time. So, first of all, do you think they're going to keep HBO Max? temporarily, but they'll roll it all into one. It'll just be Netflix, I'd say,

in a year's time, or in a year's time after the deal goes through. Yeah, maybe the thumbnails will have a little HBO. Yeah, they'll have an HBO section. And another thing, I think so. And another thing, Netflix really needs to work on their layout. I don't know about you, but every time I get on Netflix,

I'm very overwhelmed by the layout. Well, there's so much stuff. Yeah. So I think it'd be good if they had an HBO section. And I should note, too, that even if this deal was like approved today, oh, excuse me, the transaction is expected to close once WB separates from Discovery Global and Q3 of 2026. So you're talking about billions of dollars so this doesn't happen overnight. I think one thing for sure that's going to happen is you're going to pay more for Netflix. Because one, they want to make their money back.

Two, when you have a monopoly, this happens. And these streamers have followed the tech blueprint, like from Uber and Grubhub, where you get in early, you make no profit because you don't charge hardly anything for your service. And once you corner the market with name recognition, you raise the prices. I don't know about you guys, but I've noticed that Ubers are ridiculous now, no matter what city you're in. And also, I think the big thing for Netflix, though, their entire model is based around preserving subscriptions. They don't want people to cancel their Netflix. And now I think they're back to, well, yeah, you got to have Netflix. Everything's on there.

Yeah. And Netflix is kind of like the one I feel like most people always keep. Like they'll do the rotation on like everything else. But Netflix is like the mainstay. And this is just going to help them in that department. What's it currently running for? Like 20 bucks? Is that how much Netflix is?

You know, it's weird. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Because there's also the other tiers. There's ad free. which there should be. I'm all for that.

I still my mom's, so I don't know. Yeah, I think we're all using your mom's. Yeah. So a friend of ours, friend of the channel, Paul from heavy spoilers, I don't think he'll mind me quoting him here. We were texting about this earlier. He said he thinks the DCU is done

because Netflix are very performance-based and it doesn't have the numbers. I don't know if there's facts to back that up, and I think he's talking about the actual streaming shows, right? Now, this is where it hurts us the most because Netflix's model of like dump and pump is the worst. I hate it so much. I think it's great for getting people and to watch new shows, but the reason we can never cover stranger things is because they'll dump the show on a holiday. And then by the time we come back, it's two weeks old, you know? I really hope that the

DCU and all these other shows preserve that weekly format because it just is more fun. I mean, I'm old school. I grew up in the 80s and 90s. I like television that comes weekly and you have to wait for it or you could go back later and watch it. But what do you think? Are they going to hold us to that model or not? I love Paul.

I don't know where he's getting that the DCU isn't performing well, though. Well, Creature Commandos and Peacemaker aren't like massive, massive shows. They're not like Game of Thrones level shows. otherwise they'd probably be on HBO. But what's the alternative? I mean, reboot again. They're certainly not going to bring back the Snyder stuff. I think Netflix is moving in the right.

There was a rumor that was going to happen. There was a group of shoddies that were in the Comcast deal who were holding it up. And they were really saying that Snyder might come in. But point out. I think Netflix, to answer your question, has been moving in the right direction with, they didn't.

you know, they're not dropping all of stranger things. They're learning like, oh, well, if we drop it in three sections, then people actually talk about the show and there's buzz about it and we can, you know, continue, like, and then have like more drops. No, they're not doing the episode by episode. But again, I think that I think there could be something different for, oh, the HBO shows, they do come out once a week. Like maybe that there will be like different departments.

And I really hope. that Warner Brothers has kept very much its own thing. I hope Netflix keeps Warner Brothers as its own studio that produces its movies for theaters, produces its television programs, and then Netflix takes what they want and puts it on Netflix after the fact. Yeah, I definitely think they're not going to interfere with the creative that much. And I will say this, like Netflix has made some amazing television shows, you know, baby reindeer.

I mean, and they've, you, they've done these shows. that, oh my God, Midnight Mass. Like, there's so many. And I love, and I love working with the people at Netflix. They're amazing partners whenever we have a show that we need screeners for. Thanks to the good people at Netflix for always being there for creatives like me and Colton. But in all seriousness, they have made some great stuff and they've also made some really disposable stuff. I can also say that some of like four seasons was a great show, the Tina Fey show, Kimmy Schmidt. Like they've put out some of my favorite shows. It's just this, model worries me. And I don't think they would dump the DCU altogether, but I do think, I don't know,

they might curb the streaming element of that. You know what I mean? They might want to flex some creative muscle and lean on James Gunn't a little bit and be like, you know, shouldn't we do more Batman? Because Batman's the biggest thing. We do have a super chat here from Sir Lou, gave us 10 pounds. Hello from for the UK. He says, if the Snyderverse returns, expect Cabell to return. He's done he's done with Netflix after the Witcher debacle. Very good point. And he's signed to Amazon for the Highlander and Warhammer. And just side note, my God, am I excited for the Highlander? I mean, that's a franchise. I've been like for years. How are you not like rebooting this right now and now it's happening? Well, and Netflix also has canceled

there any future plans of Snyder following Rebel Moon not doing well. And Ben Affleck, no way Ben Affleck comes back. I mean, he has said that he, and I would love that. I love Ben Affleck as Batman. So I'm not coming from a perspective. Oh, I hate Ben Affleck Batman. But he is done. Like he's been done, like done, done. I don't think any amount of money would get him back. Uh, Jason Momoa. He's playing Lobo. Jason Momoa is super dedicated to James Gunn. They're buddies. And we've seen how it, how loyal his cast is. They were all loyal to Snyder too, though. I mean, and you can say this. Snyder those characters really well, like the Justice League. Remember, this is pre-ezra-Miller meltdown, right?

Yeah. But even just... I don't think Galgado was a great casting, but... Yeah, the rest of it. We've also got here from Zeus... Well, that was from the Rootschutes, wasn't it? Was that, did that make it into the Snyder cut? I don't think you can count anything from the Justice League.

All right, we've got another one here from Zeus Fleming, $13.99. All right, money bags. You're buying me dinner. From renting DVDs through the mail ending Blockbuster to now owning the biggest media companies in the planet. Also, WWE, Netflix is kink. Did the WWE buy Netflix? I think they're just airing Raw.

Did they fly out buy the company? You're breaking up on my MOVICE last part. I asked, did, and you guys can tell me the comments, did the WWE actually sell out to Netflix? I thought they just had a deal to air Raw. Yeah, and I thought for some reason that Paramount Plus got some kind of deal to run some wrestling something. I don't know. I don't keep up. Peacock was doing it for a while. It's hard to keep track. But friends in the comments, let us know.

I don't know. We got here, Affleck will be back. I don't think Affleck's ever, I don't give a crap how big of a fan he is of Netflix's CEO. I just don't, I think he's done. I think that plain Batman became this thing that just hounded him all of the time. And it's a shame because I agree with you. I think he was a good Batman, but never in a good movie. They didn't buy WW. They have a deal with WWE, according to Zeus Fleming. Thank you, Zeus for the clarification.

So, and now the comments are pouring in correcting me on that. I'm going to be optimistic about it, but I think what you're actually seeing here, and I think we need to wrap up in a second, what we're seeing is, I said at the start of the video, a seismic shift in the entertainment industry, and that's true. This cements what began in March 2020. If the pandemic hadn't happened, a lot of things would be different, but the entertainment industry would not have had a streaming gold rush. Everybody was starting to get into it.

Even the WWE had a network that was really good. But it wouldn't have been so profitable so fast that it made all of these companies throw away what was working so quickly or throw away tradition so quickly. The pandemic also, I think, gave rise. rise to TikTok and a lot faster, which made YouTube and other platforms, Facebook, turned to short form content, which is not nearly as profitable. And that's really a thing to remember here, right? We love this stuff because it's convenient. We can watch anything we want, but it doesn't make that much money. And what we're really going to see out of this, I think in three years when we talk about

this, and we go, oh yeah, remember Netflix used to be $10? Now it's 50? That's the main thing that's going to happen. They're going to become that like basic cable package that you would pay for that was like 40 bucks and you had to have that, but then all the others were considered add-ons. I don't think it's going to homogenize programming. I don't think it's going to end theatrical releases altogether, but I do think you're going to see a lot of movie theaters start shutting down because they're going to prioritize releases straight to streaming, and only the big guys are going to get posted out there. But as for the DCU, I think it's safe.

They've already invested time and money and they have a fan base they're trying to build. I don't see them trying to change the superhero business. You got any other final thoughts, Colton? I agree. As far as D.C. Okay, so now we got to. Yeah. As far as D.C. goes, I hope that Netflix being as smart as they are, I hope that they learn from what happened when we saw the money people try to lean on Kevin Feige too much.

And they completely just crippled the MCU. So I hope that they see that James Gunn is a super talented guy. Just let him cook. don't go in there trying to put too many hands in the kitchen. That's my hope. Too many hands in the kitchen. We've all had that problem. We got a couple other super chats.

I want to get to real quick. Thank you guys so much for those. We've got one here. This is from Michael Rondini 5203. You know, it's funny is I don't really read these first, so I hope nobody ever. You guys will someday catch me in the middle of reading something really terrible and I'll have to correct.

But Michael didn't say anything terrible. He said, exclusively from everything always, but when he started only doing leaks, I found you and I never went back anywhere else. You know what? That's tough to not cover leaks. You know, Paul used to do the same thing. And then what happened is the companies really started to lean on people. Like anyone who covered those Ant Man leaks where they leaked the entire plot on Reddit got slammed. So we made the decision to not use leaked footage to we'll talk about rumors. You know, rumors are fun, but nothing that's like a big deal. And we always,

worn ahead for spoilers. We've also got Mad Genius who says Netflix will own DC Comics now too, so there'll be more digital comic sales. That's interesting because Netflix has tried to get into the gaming market for a long time pretty unsuccessfully. And I wonder if now, yeah, I don't know, go ahead. Netflix, here's what we have to keep in mind. 10, 15 years from now, the big tech companies, Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Microsoft, they're going to own all the media companies. You know, 30 years, 40 years ago, it was the media companies were the top dog, but that has shifted. It's the tech companies spiral on down. I think that Netflix and their platform and they're the best in the game at having a streaming platform and all of the,

the like nitty gritty that goes into running like that big of an online platform. Like I don't think some people understand like when a streaming service crashes, it's because a lot goes in. there are a lot of servers and like big server farms and all that that go into running that stuff. I think Netflix has put together the ability for them to transcend beyond just having movies and shows on their platform, but they're going to have video games. I could see them putting in books and comic books to where you just get Netflix be your media home on your TV, on your phone. It's where you can go play your games. Maybe they sign a deal with Microsoft.

You can go play Halo or. PlayStation or whatever. I think in 10 years' time, that that's what Netflix is trying to do is just be this media hub. And that buys into the fact that they're trying to buy up all this IP and stuff so that they can sell ads and get recurring subscriptions. Yeah.

I got one more super chat here. We had missed this one. Jerry Roth, thank you for letting us know. According to PW Insider, over the air channels will be part of Discovery Global, which we did mention earlier. So AEW will be fine.

A.W is the rival to WWE. Netflix will raise the prices too high and burst the bubble. I don't think that bubble is going to get burst because, you know, like I said, it is all about you have to meet people where they are and people are on their phones. They're on the internet. They're on front of their computers and their streaming sites. The bubble, I think, has already burst. The writer's strike and the actor strike burst that.

We got another one here from Fredo. I like how you spoke Fredo. Not sure how you guys feel about wrestling, but AEW is on HBO, and WWE is on Netflix. That could have huge repercussions for pro wrestling. I now understand. I've read these out of sequence that Jerry Roth's comment was in response to that one.

So sorry, I missed that. We're still very new to this. We wrestle all the time. Yeah, exactly. I used to be, I mean, I go off and on wrestling. I think one of the true marks of a wrestling fan is getting frustrated with the WWE and quitting for a while, but I'm a few years out now.

So that's where we're at. I'm going to choose to be optimistic, but like I said before, we can't understate how huge this is. This is a marriage of tech and entertainment that we've, it's on a scale we've never seen before. It's an $80 billion scale. And I'll leave you with one final thought.

Here's one thing I think this definitely means. I want to know what's going on at Sony Pictures right now. Oh, Tracy Dutch, before I get into Sony Pictures, Tracy says, Ryan, side note, love seeing Doug, but sad my boys, my boy passed away this year, and I always want to meet target live or a con. I'm so sorry, Tracy, that sucks. I'm really sorry for your loss there.

He's never going to die. I won't allow it. We'll find a way. I love that dog so much. He would be here right now, but he didn't want to be. So I'm curious about Sony, because as you guys know, when, if a studio were to buy Sony, like if Amazon, which bought MGM, bought Sony, or if Apple, or any of these other tech companies were to buy Sony pictures,

Sony electronics would keep making their electronics, but that means that the deal that Marvel has with Sony would be null and void, and Spider-Man's rights would automatically revert back to Marvel. Maybe that's a deal breaker for a lot of these companies, because maybe your high evaluation would be, we want to keep making your top franchise. But I kind of think that Sony is going to start going,

$50 billion maybe for that company. they don't have a streaming service, but that's a hell of a back catalog and a hell of a studio infrastructure. You get Ghostbusters and some other franchises with that. Yeah, I honestly, I'm surprised that Netflix hasn't already nabbed Sony. I'm sure they've made an offer. Maybe Sony's just not ready to sell.

Or they don't want to because they consider them a competing tech company. Jerry Roth says short form content is free. Not everyone has the money. You're willing to pay 50 bucks for a Netflix membership without ads. It's currently $31. No, that's, no. It's $31. I don't think it's 31. Oh, yeah, it's 31 without ads. Sorry about that. You're right. Short form content is free, but it also doesn't make much money. It's really hard. You have to basically make a viral video every single day. We have some YouTube shorts that have really taken off and they don't make anything. You just gave us more in the super chat than we make from all of our YouTube shorts combined. It's mostly a tool for the algorithm at this point. I do think we have to sign off there. Not on the comments as much as I like because I find this topic really fascinating.

Sorry, I don't think we missed any super chats. Thank you guys for tuning in. We love doing this. I'm getting a report. We were just bought by Netflix. Damn it. Okay. And I for one welcome our new Netflix overlords.

And I want to remind them that I would be of a great help to you in your streaming minds, mining the algorithm for data to use against all of our enemies. long live Netflix. And I also want to say everybody, thank you for watching. Let us know what you think down in the comments below if you weren't here for the live chat. And be sure to subscribe, smash the bell for alerts,

and let's keep the discussion going on our free to join Discord server. It's like the internet before companies like Netflix ruined it. This has been my friend Colton Ogburn, the guy who's trapped in the TV and doesn't know it, so please don't tell him. Looks like you had a mic problem there, Colton. And I am Ryan Erie. Thanks for watching.

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