Today, the CW announced a deal with Netflix to exclusively stream their shows in full eight days after the season finale. During the season, the only digital way to get their shows will now be their website. This deal is a mixed bag, for reasons I’ll share below.
If you read the comments sections on any of these articles (which I would never usually recommend. The comments are a dangerous place) you’ll see a LOT of people angry that their beloved shows will no longer be available on Hulu, the most popular streaming platform for watching shows during the season. That does suck, but remember that those same episodes will still be available on the CW’s site, for the same timeframe they would be available on Hulu.
Now, full disclosure here: I do subscribe to Netflix, but I do not subscribe to Hulu. I’ve just never seen the point since every network posts their shows to their own site. Sure, you can get less or no commercials with Hulu, but commercials have never bothered me enough to want to pay extra to get rid of them. That’s a personal taste and I totally understand if 30 seconds of commercials is a deal breaker for you.
But if that’s not you, I want to give you a couple reasons why this deal is good, and why the loss of Hulu isn’t that big of a deal. For people wanting to get into a show like Supergirl, this is great news. Consider the fact that CBS is notorious for not putting their shows on streaming sites in the first place. Their shows are not on Hulu, and most of them are not available on Netflix. Another factor is how some shows only have an episode or two available at a time, and they aren’t always in release order.
But let’s ignore what’s wrong with Hulu for a second and talk about the real issue here. For me, this is the biggest “so what?” about the Hulu loss:
Your shows are still online.
Is it slightly more inconvenient not being able to use Hulu? Yes. Do you have to keep paying for a Hulu membership if those are the only shows you watched on it? No, of course not. Unfortunately, that’s the cost of subscribing to anything: the value of that subscription changes over time. For Netflix subscribers, that value just went way up.
The other upside to this is that I think the CW is ahead of the curve in terms of making their shows available after they air. In years past, the normal protocol for the networks has been to release last season about a month or so before the next season airs, first on disc, then on streaming (maybe, if you’re lucky). By shortening this window, the CW is giving audiences the maximum amount of time to either catch up on or discover their shows. As someone who is currently half a season or more behind on some shows I really enjoy, I think this is awesome. I’ve given up on entire shows because I got too many episodes behind and couldn’t catch up before the next season. It’s really frustrating to me that an arbitrary window exists in which shows just aren’t available anywhere. This deal changes that, and I think other networks will follow.
Here’s how I see it. Netflix is increasingly pushing itself towards a premium television model, and this deal is basically a play test for them. They get to see how much interest they can generate from making shows available to audiences much more quickly than they’ve been allowed to in the past. If I were to guess, in the future this deal will morph into Netflix streaming episodes even closer to their debut. Since they are still primarily a full-season-binge platform, they might not jump into next day streaming right away, but they could toy with doing half seasons (another great time to catch up on episodes you missed). Plus, they are currently experimenting with different release models with their Chelsea Handler show, so I think they’re open to it.
For the CW, this is a chance to catch viewers in a space where other shows just aren’t currently available. I personally discovered season 1 of The Flash just as season 2 was beginning, and I think making more of the show available to more people can only open up the audience even more. I don’t think the CW has much to lose here because even if they lose some viewers during the live season, they’re clearly expecting those people to then catch up later. And when they subsequently get a lot of streams on Netflix, they can sweeten that deal even further. There’s a lot of room for everyone to win.
Does this suck for committed Hulu subscribers? Yea, in the short term, it’s going to take some adjusting. But I don’t think we should act like the sky is falling when these shows will still be available for free, legal online streaming during their live runs. The bigger picture here is the CW and Netflix making a deal that has some big implications for the future of network television. If you’re still angry about it, just remember that the networks have always been terrible at giving their fans access to the content they want. At the very least this is a giant step forward in terms of rethinking their approach towards release schedules. Or to put it another way:
Don't whine about Hulu. Be happy that someone's trying to be innovative.
-Alex