Two major streaming rivals in the industry may be working out a deal together. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is reportedly in talks to license HBO titles to Netflix.
According to a Deadline report, the select library of HBO titles will be released on Netflix on a non-exclusive basis, which means they will continue streaming on Max, the rebranded WBD-owned streamer that recently launched in May. The publication added that the first show WBD will license to Netflix is the hit comedy series “Insecure.”
Sources familiar with the situation told Deadline that the companies hadn’t closed the deal yet, so it may not even happen.
Netflix and WBD declined to comment to TechCrunch.
If the potential deal were to close, this would mark a significant move for both companies since Netflix is arguably WBD’s largest competitor. WBD reports 97.6 million subscribers across HBO, HBO Max (now called Max) and Discovery+. Netflix has a whopping 232 million subs as of Q1 2023. Thus, bringing HBO content to Netflix would likely help them reach a wider audience.
This isn’t the first time that WBD licensed its HBO programming to media companies. Recently, WBD made the decision to distribute 2,000 hours of content, including the popular HBO series “Westworld,” to Roku and Tubi. Earlier this month, the company reached an agreement with Amazon Freevee to launch 11 free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels featuring WBD-owned IP, including “Cake Boss,” “Say Yes to the Dress,” “Ghost Brothers” and more.
In 2014, older HBO titles like “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Boardwalk Empire” and “True Blood,” among others, became available on Prime Video.