Netflix is moving up in the world, at least among Manhattan’s (fictional) social scene. “Gossip Girl” and other hit shows on The CW network, including “The Vampire Diaries” and “One Tree Hill,” will be available on Netflix’s streaming instantly service on October 15, according to the terms of a reported $1 billion, four-year-deal Netflix signed with The CW’s corporate parents, Warner Bros and CBS Corporation.
“This proves once again the overriding importance of content in our business, while showing how emerging platforms such as Netflix are adding value to the traditional TV ecosystem,” said Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros, in a joint statement released by the company and CBS on Thursday. “And to open a new window like this for our television product strengthens the increasing value of our powerful, deep and growing portfolio.”
Michael Pachter, an entertainment analyst at Wedbush Securities, put it more bluntly in an email to TPM: “It’s a must-have for Netflix, a good deal for CBS/Warner.”
Under the deal, Netflix gets “700 hours of previous-season episodes” of CW’s shows. Previous seasons of “The Vampire Diaries,” “Gossip Girl,” “One Tree Hill” and “Nikita” will be available immediately on October 15. Old episodes of “Supernatural” and (the new) “90210” won’t become available until January 2012.
And new shows on the Fall 2011 schedule, including “”Ringer,” “Hart of Dixie” and “The Secret Circle,” will only become available even later, when the new seasons start in 2012.
That model mirrors the agreement that Netflix struck with AMC for “The Walking Dead” and other shows, announced on October 7.
As the competition in the online video market heats up, Netflix has been attempting to regain the luster it lost with investors and customers due to a series of dunderheaded moves, including hiking prices of 60 percent in the summer and CEO Reed Hasting’s bizarre statement in September that Netflix would split its DVD and Blu-Ray disc-by-mail rental service into a separate brand called Qwikster, a plan it hastily retracted on Monday due to widespread customer backlash (and perhaps, slightly, to the fact that the company had failed to secure the “@Qwikster” Twitter account from a trash-talking pothead.)
The new content deals should also help take the edge off the fact that Netflix’s contract renegotiations with Starz have broken down, meaning that come 2012, Netflix subscribers won’t be able to stream Disney or Sony Pictures movies.
Still, as Pachter told TPM: “Netflix needs to replace Starz content, and I’m not sure that a broader offering of television shows satisfies those subscribers who like Disney and Sony movies (around 26% of total box office).”
Netflix shares were up 1.54 percent at the time of this post.
