Without prior notice,’Friends‘has appeared in the catalog of Netflix. And without abandoning HBO Max, its usual home. Seven years ago, having all ten seasons exclusively was worth $85 million a year. But times have changed, and now the platform streaming one of the most followed and loved series in history also has the most views.
And it was not just a Spanish thing: the sitcom returned to many international markets at the beginning of July, with five relevant exceptions: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Italy. In a matter of days, the series has slipped into position 10 on the global list of Netflix’s most viewed series. A complete success that also hides some numbers worth studying.
In 2015, Warner Bros. licensed all 236 episodes to Netflix for the United States and Canada. Four years later, the renewal for 2019 was closed without exclusivity in a range of between 70 and 80 million dollars. But it didn’t last long: in 2019, WarnerMedia paid 85 million annually for five years, 425 million in totalto take the series to its own platform, surpassing Netflix’s offer. Overnight, the series was exclusive to Warner. But Warner, now in the purchasing processis not the content giant it was then.
In this way, million-dollar exclusives like this no longer make sense, at least from Warner’s side. It may not be the last of its kind that we see, but while we see how the HBO Max catalog expands to other platforms, we can review this pop culture icon (we recommend starting with season 3, the most balanced) and try to understand how its ending could put more than 50 million viewers in front of the television in 2004.
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