It was big news when Friends became available for streaming on Netflix. It’s one of the most popular TV shows ever after all. But fans may not be happy to find out that the company that owns the rights to Friends is going to remove it from competing online streaming services.
WarnerMedia has the rights to popular content like Friends and ER. These shows are available on different online streaming services but that might change in the near future. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has said that the company is planning to pull WarnerMedia’s content from other streaming services so that it can be exclusively offered on AT&T’s upcoming streaming service. They figure if it is exclusive to them, subscribers will come.
Stephenson said during a conference that “We are going to have to take a lot of the great content we own that’s been licensed elsewhere and bring that back into the fold.”
Taking these shows away from services like Netflix and Hulu will essentially force fans to go with AT&T’s new streaming service. It may also hurt their competitors numbers as some of WarnerMedia’s shows are the most widely viewed shows on Netflix. Netflix did pay $100 million so that it could exclusively stream Friends throughout 2019 after all.
AT&T will launch its streaming service later this year.
Source Ubergizmo
