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Netflix Will Keep ‘Friends’ Through Next Year in a $100 Million Agreement

Shard Shinjuku

Shard Shinjuku

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Oct 25, 2017
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/business/media/netflix-friends.html

The answer is no — for now. Reruns of Joey's thespian trials, Chandler's hapless sarcasm, Monica's compulsive cleanliness, Phoebe's feline riffs and the seemingly permanent courtship of Ross and Rachel will be available to watch on Netflix for at least another year, the streaming service has announced.

But it will come at a steep price: The company will pay around $100 million to continue licensing the program from its owner, WarnerMedia, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the deal.

That's a significant jump from the $30 million a year that Netflix had paid previously to stream the show. But the new amount reflects the thirst for content in the streaming age. Online viewing is the future of entertainment, and the industry's biggest players

— including WarnerMedia's parent, AT&T; the Walt Disney Company; Comcast's NBCUniversal; Viacom; CBS; and Discovery — are retooling their streaming operations to take on services like Netflix and Amazon.
WarnerMedia and Netflix declined to comment.
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bshock

bshock

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Nov 3, 2017
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Wow. Royalties for the actors must be a pretty penny.
 
Officer Big Mac

Officer Big Mac

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Oct 28, 2017
22,596
For me Friends is that show that you have zero interest in and cant understand the appeal but is wildly popular. It will forever be beyond my comprehension.
 
Emwitus

Emwitus

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Feb 28, 2018
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Holy batman. I just read they were getting 20 million a year back in 2015?!!! Why even work anymore
 
WaffleTaco

WaffleTaco

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Oct 25, 2017
2,908
Thank god! Netflix I take back everything negative I ever said about you!
 
Euron

Euron

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Oct 27, 2017
2,772
Friends is just pure watchable mediocrity. It's something to have on in the background for noise and not pay attention to while you're doing other things in a group setting.

Now if you're actually invested in it then Jesus Christ there are other sitcoms to watch.
 
hordak

hordak

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Oct 31, 2017
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Emwitus said:
Holy batman. I just read they were getting 20 million a year back in 2015?!!! Why even work anymore
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the same reason Paul McCartney still releases albums and the Rock makes movies and Mark Zuckerberg does whatever the fuck he does. Because they can.

Holy shit, Paul is worth 1.2 billion and Bono has like $700 million. Could they BE any richer?
 
TheFireman

TheFireman

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Dec 22, 2017
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There was a month where my friends swapped from having The Office always on to having Friends always on. Easily one of the worst months of my life.
 
ApatheticDolphin

ApatheticDolphin

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Oct 25, 2017
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Euron said:
Friends is just pure watchable mediocrity. It's something to have on in the background for noise and not pay attention to while you're doing other things in a group setting.

Now if you're actually invested in it then Jesus Christ there are other sitcoms to watch.
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Pretty much this. Also fun to watch and see how social norms have changed since the 90s/2000s.
 

Deleted member 32563

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Nov 11, 2017
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$100 million in debt for that wack ass show. Netflix stuck in la la land. Shoulda got Martin. Far better sitcom.
 
Conkerkid11

Conkerkid11

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Oct 25, 2017
13,941
Holy shit, it's crazy that a single show could even be worth that investment. A lot of people must still watch it I guess?

Also, in for a thread about people hating the show because it's popular to hate it for some reason.
 
Reedirect

Reedirect

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Oct 27, 2017
2,046
One of the few shows that's massive enough worldwide to explain that pricetag. I'm going to assume the money's worth it.
 

Deleted member 17402

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Girlfriend loves this show and has to put it on every single night before falling asleep. I had a brief moment of satisfaction when I heard it was leaving
 
Galkinator

Galkinator

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Oct 27, 2017
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What. How can this be a reasonable price to pay for that show, after all these years
 
9-Volt

9-Volt

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Oct 27, 2017
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And this deal is only for US Netflix. They paid $100 million to keep the show available to American viewers. The way WB operates outside of US (through scummy distributors), it would be impossible to make it available internationally.
 
Border

Border

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,859
If people like it enough that it keeps them subscribed during times when original content is unfulfilling, then it's totally worth it for Netflix to keep the show around.
 
HomerSimpson-Man

HomerSimpson-Man

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Oct 30, 2017
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Emwitus said:
How much do the actors get paid for this?
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I remember an article a bit back that the Friends cast get like 2% royalties. The show is so popular in syndication both national and internationally, each cast member is making millions every year from it just from that 2%. As noted by
Emwitus, the cast made $20 million each back in 2015, which means Warner Bros. made an insane $1 billion from the show off the cast's work that year.
 
Detective Loki

Detective Loki

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Nov 30, 2018
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Conkerkid11 said:
Holy shit, it's crazy that a single show could even be worth that investment. A lot of people must still watch it I guess?

Also, in for a thread about people hating the show because it's popular to hate it for some reason.
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Because they think somehow Netflix spending $100 million on Friends has something to do with Daredevil being canceled so they need to place their irrational logic somewhere
 
Hellwarden

Hellwarden

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Oct 25, 2017
34,068
Friends is probably like Star Trek in that while there are people who watch it, it's also a show that you turn on to watch before bed. A show to relax to.

At least that's my take.
 
TurokTTZ

TurokTTZ

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Oct 25, 2017
597
different strokes I guess. show was trash back then, still is now. but I guess one person's trash is another person's treasure.
 
Woolley

Woolley

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Oct 25, 2017
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Seems like a lot for just a year. But I guess they would have the data that would make the deal worth it.
 
Vilix

Vilix

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Oct 25, 2017
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When it was on NBC I would watch it all the time. But the last couple of sessions I became nauseous every time Phoebe came on. It got to a point that I wanted to shoot the tv. Utterly annoying character.
 
Pwnz

Pwnz

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So much money. And I bet a huge portion of people that watch them already have the complete DVD collection but use Netflix because it's easier lol.
 
lunarworks

lunarworks

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Teh Hamburglar said:
For me Friends is that show that you have zero interest in and cant understand the appeal but is wildly popular. It will forever be beyond my comprehension.
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I got bored of it after a couple of seasons during its original run, but that was more a case of me getting tired of predictable multi-cam sitcoms. (I kept watching Seinfeld, but that was something else altogether.)
 
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