Just when you thought the streaming wars couldn’t take any more unexpected turns in the midst of the rampant content purge that’s seen dozens upon dozens of projects wiped from existence, Netflix is now officially streaming its first HBO original.
Cash-strapped Warner Bros. entered talks with its rival last month in an effort to try and raise some additional capital by licensing many of its exclusives off to Netflix, with all five seasons of Issa Rae’s sitcom Insecure now available to subscribers in countless international markets.
However, the trade-off is nowhere near finished. In fact, it’s only just beginning, and there are some genuine heavy hitters poised to migrate from Max to Netflix in the very near future. The pick of the bunch is without a doubt Band of Brothers, the classic miniseries widely – and entirely deservedly – lauded as one of the greatest small screen productions there’s ever been.
As well as the World War II epic, Netflix is also in line to acquire The Pacific, Six Feet Under and Ballers among others, so not even Dwayne Johnson’s televised efforts are safe from the penny pinching. If you needed any more indicators that Warner Bros. is truly in dire financial straits, then auctioning off some of its biggest and most popular episodic offerings of the last 20 years to one of its biggest competitors in the VOD marketplace will answer any and all questions you may have.
On the plus side, Band of Brothers is destined to find a massive new audience on Netflix, introducing a whole new generation to one of the all-time greats.