Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly considering an unprecedented move in the age of streaming – licensing some of its original productions to a rival, Netflix. Sources familiar with the negotiation told reporters from Deadline that WBD may license some of its HBO original series to Netflix. So far, the only specific title being discussed in this deal is the comedy Insecure starring creator Issa Rae.
Over the last few years streaming services have tried to keep their own intellectual property as close as possible, and this has been true for HBO even longer. If this deal goes through, it would reportedly be the first time in almost a decade that an HBO show has been available to stream on a rival subscription service in the U.S. Insiders said that this is purely a financial move, and that long-time HBO employees are well aware of how much it would break from precedent. There reportedly are factions inside the company fighting back against this deal.
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So far, they said that the arguments about precedent and brand value seem to be losing out against cold hard calculations. However, insiders said that this deal is not closed and there is no guarantee that it will go through at all. They also mentioned that this would be a non-exclusive license, so Netflix might be allowed to stream these shows but they could still be streaming on Max at the same time.
Insecure ran for five seasons and ended in 2021. Just this year, it made its cable debut by airing on the WBD-owned network OWN. This is not the first move towards non-exclusivity, either. Fans were shocked when the company dropped Westworld from HBO Max earlier this year, only for it to turn up on the ad-supported streaming services Roku and Tubi.
Still, there is a chance that a fresh start on a new streamer could be good for Insecure and perhaps for other obscure shows that never quite found their audience in its broadest form. Insecure is about contemporary Black American women living in Los Angeles, California, and considering how vehemently it was praised by fans and critics throughout its run it had relatively low ratings on cable. If a Netflix deal opens the show up to a whole new wave of viewers, it could be a net positive for this specific production, at least.
As for WBD, the company is dead set on cutting costs wherever possible, so moves like this should not be surprising. For now, Insecure is streaming only on Max.
