Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: HBO, Netflix
This week, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it would be licensing Sex and the City to Netflix. Because of this, millions of Netflix viewers who have heard of Sex and the City but never actually saw more than the occasional clip online will now have the opportunity to ponder whether they themselves are more of a Carrie or a Miranda.
From an optics perspective, though, the idea that one of HBO’s premiere shows — a title that’s been strongly associated with the prestige brand for decades — will now be available to watch on what is, politely, the streaming equivalent of Starbucks, feels surprising! Surely the point of all these streaming platforms is to make people subscribe because they want to watch the shows they can’t see anywhere else, right? And HBO’s brand is based in part on its veneer of exclusivity. What’s going on? As is appropriate for any important existential question about the nature of humanity, Vulture writers Joe Adalian and Kathryn VanArendonk are here to engage in a socratic dialogue to find some consensus on this topic.
Kathryn VanArendonk: Joe, this is not the first time HBO shows have been available somewhere other than HBO, yes? It’s not even the first time Sex and the City has been available somewhere else!
Joe Adalian: Nope, this is not the first time SATC has ventured outside the borders of its HBO homeland — not by a mile. On linear TV, the show has been running on basic cable on and off since TBS started carrying reruns back in June 2004, just three months after its HBO series finale. The next year, the show began a syndication run on local TV stations around the country, and eventually it moved over to the very downscale cable neighborhood where the E! Network resides. (You can watch a marathon of episodes this Monday if you’d like.)
But if you’re thinking, Ah, yes, Joe, but there’s a big difference between edited cable reruns of SATC and streaming the show uncensored, well … I don’t entirely disagree. But the fact is, Netflix doesn’t even get the honor of being the first non-HBO streamer to host Carrie & Co. As recently as May 2020 — back when folks were still at home watching All the Television because of COVID shutdowns — Sex was included with a subscription to Amazon’s very widely distributed Prime Video service, along with a slew of other legendary HBO series such as The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Veep. (For balance, Prime was also forced to carry Entourage.) And this wasn’t some random short-term deal that never got promoted: I realize every year now seems like ten in our dystopian universe, but back in 2014, HBO struck a deal to hand over streaming rights for most of its library content to Amazon, marking the first time you could digitally stream HBO shows without an HBO subscription (short of buying full seasons outright, of course.) And while Sex wasn’t available when the partnership began, the show eventually made its way to Prime in September 2015, where it remained for nearly five years. All of this was well before HBO was controlled by the Dark Lord or those idiots from the phone company, and in the case of Sex, months after HBO started selling subscriptions directly to consumers via its now-defunct HBO Now service. So, yeah, the Netflix deal is not breaking any new ground at all, Kathryn.
KVA: I remember watching Deadwood on Prime! I also remember watching Sex on cable, which had some of the funniest safe-for-basic-cable edits that it felt like watching a live-action Highlights Magazine “spot the differences” activity sheet. I do wonder, though, if Sex and the City’s presence on Netflix has some different valences than those earlier examples. For one, TBS was full of syndicated shows that originally appeared elsewhere, and the beginning days of Prime were similar. They were more like Netflix used to be: a place to watch lots of different shows that lived somewhere else before.
But the weight of Netflix versus other streaming platforms today feels different than TBS versus every other basic-cable channel in 2003. There’s been so much emphasis on original programming, for one thing. Netflix is still a place to watch TV that used to exist somewhere else — see: Suits supremacy — but there’s also something more totalizing about Netflix as a brand identity. Suits as a Blue Sky–era USA show is dead. Suits is a Netflix show now. You actually became a Netflix show. Is Sex and the City about to become a Netflix show? Does that … matter?
JA: At the risk of this discussion turning into a reboot of CNN’s thankfully retired Crossfire, I’m going to have to take issue with many of your points, Ms. VanArendonk. I don’t disagree that Suits, at least right now, is very closely associated with Netflix and not USA Network for millions of viewers. But USA Network has been out of the scripted-originals business for several years now and abandoned the Blue Skies marketing nearly a decade ago. Before Suits joined Netflix, the only subscription streamer with all of its seasons was Peacock, which reaches one-eighth of Netflix’s global audience. Plus, while the show certainly had a fan base and a very famous alum, there wasn’t really a Suits brand to manage: Nobody was paying money to see a tour of its various shooting locations the way they do with SATC. USA Network’s Blue Skies shows were less about fandom (though they did have fans) as they were creating kick-back programming you could drop in and out of at will.
That’s not the case with Sex and the City going to Netflix. This is a show that just got a major marketing push on Max on behalf of its 25th anniversary. Its main characters are currently starring in a spinoff series, And Just Like That …. It makes much more sense to compare SATC to Grey’s Anatomy or Friends. Those shows found new, younger audiences after arriving on the streamer, but they did not at all become “Netflix” shows, even if that is where many people watched (and in some cases, still watch) them. Sure, they became more popular because of Netflix, but the millions of fans who still watch Grey’s on ABC Thursday night know where to find it — and Disney milked the equity it got from Netflix to launch spinoff Station 19. Similarly, even if Gen Z and younger millennials fell in love with Friends on Netflix, they flocked to HBO Max for the Friends reunion in 2021, then stayed with the streamer to watch reruns of the show (it remains super-popular on Max). Then there’s the case of Breaking Bad, a series that did fine for AMC its first few seasons but exploded toward the end of its run — after Netflix got off-season rights to the show. Are there some people who never knew or cared if episodes were airing on AMC and simply waited for new seasons of the show to pop up on Netflix? Of course. But AMC still saw huge gains for Breaking Bad’s linear audiences and, just as importantly, transferred that expanded fandom to spinoff Better Call Saul. There is similarly only an upside to HBO for Sex and the City getting exposure on Netflix: Being on a bigger platform will create new fans of the franchise and bring in more revenue to HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery. The underlying IP remains where it’s always been, and new fans curious to see whatever happened to the show’s lead characters (well, most of them) will just be a Google search away from subscribing to Max to watch And Just Like That ….
KVA: Much though I’d like to have some excuse to look up a bunch of quotes from the Tucker Carlson–Jon Stewart Crossfire appearance (talk about nostalgia viewing!), too much of this analysis strikes me as reasonable. Damn you, Adalian!!
I am still curious about Sex and the City and the Netflix viewing experience. When it was originally on HBO, that show seemed to tick a lot of boxes that were consistent with what HBO identity wanted to be: It was about young adulthood, it was more sexy and frank than network shows were allowed to be, it had a sitcom shape but pushed comedy-TV structure in a different direction. The sense of any kind of a “Netflix show” identity is much weaker, but there are several types of drama I can point to and say, “Yeah, that’s a familiar Netflix category”: sad drugs-related drama, fantasy mishmash drama, family-weeping drama. That same approach feels almost entirely absent for comedy. Is SATC going to go into a general “nostalgia” bucket for Netflix viewers?
JA: Well, there’s a huge difference between HBO and Netflix that’s worth keeping in mind: The former is a network; the latter is a platform. It’s true that for a hot minute a decade ago, Netflix execs talked about becoming HBO “before HBO could become us.” But just like elected officials, corporate suits often do complete reversals of previous policy positions, and Netflix long ago decided it had bigger ambitions than becoming the digital version of a subscription-cable network known for great quality. For at least the last 30 years, HBO has carefully curated an image as a destination for bespoke, upscale shows broader networks weren’t interested in. Since at least 2018, it’s been clear that Netflix just wants to replicate the entire cable bundle — everything from, yes, some HBO-like shows (Beef) but also stuff you’d find on Bravo, 2000s USA, or even CBS. “There’s no such thing as a ‘Netflix show,’” co-CEO Ted Sarandos told me six years ago. “That as a mind-set gets people narrowed. Our brand is personalization.”
Netflix isn’t trying to develop any one kind of comedic (or dramatic) brand; it’s looking to find shows that serve viewers who like a zillion different kinds of shows. Sex and the City falls into whatever “taste clusters” the original show appeals to — possibly a comedy from the same creator (Emily Goes to Paris), but maybe viewers who enjoyed the empowered women of Dead to Me or Santa Clarita Diet, and yes, definitely folks nostalgic for the era of Cosmos and appletinis and when Donald Trump was only a punch line. But that’s the power of any good library show: It can serve as both a nostalgia trip for those who saw it decades ago but also a revealing new work of art for those who missed it the first time. It’s the reason shows like Moonlighting and Northern Exposure have been getting mini-waves of buzz since landing on streaming via Hulu and Prime Video, respectively. Gen-Xers who watched their original runs get to fondly remember; younger citizens or even olds who didn’t have access to DVRs and VCRs can watch for the first time.
Of course, this brings us back to the idea that being on Netflix is different from airing on TBS or even streaming on Prime Video. Thing is, while Amazon doesn’t release specific numbers, I’m guessing the number of U.S. homes with access to Prime Video isn’t much smaller than Netflix. But Nielsen numbers prove that more people regularly watch and engage with shows (new and old) when they’re on Netflix. That’s where the streamer’s tech comes in: Its recommendation engine and user interface make it much easier to discover a show you might like. Do you think any of the other streamers are going to do the work to change that? Jeff Bezos has the money!
KVA: I will say that I am continually impressed and indeed astonished by Prime’s total lack of interest in finding things for me to watch or, indeed, demonstrating any urgency in displaying what it has! (One of my favorite things to do is type the name of a new Prime comedy special into a general Amazon search bar and then count how many random suggestions for kitchen accessories I find before any Prime Video listing.)
What you’re suggesting, then, is that even though lots of viewers who only watch Netflix will find Sex and the City there, binge it all, associate it more strongly with Netflix than with HBO, and potentially create a TikTok trend where people film themselves typing on a keyboard with the voice-over “And I had to wonder …,”this is not a problem for the HBO brand and suggests nothing other than that Warner Bros. Discovery made a good licensing agreement. My last question, then, is whether there’s an HBO show that would feel strange for us to see showing up on Netflix.
JA: I mean, I think if Max licensed House of the Dragon to Netflix while it was still in production, that would definitely be weird. But there is a statute of limitations on when it matters whether audiences link a certain show to a certain network or platform. NBC was synonymous with quality comedy for many years after Cheers and Friends and Seinfeld went off the air, in part because the network made new shows that people loved, like The Office and Parks and Recreation and Community. HBO’s brand will remain strong as long as it keeps making new shows that feed into that brand. I mean, look at the whole FX-Hulu mishegoss. The Bear just became the first FX-branded show to win an Emmy for Best Comedy or Drama — and it did not ever actually air on the FX television network. Despite the many onscreen mentions of FX, I have no doubt that millions of viewers think of it as a Hulu show. And you know what? That’s okay. People watch shows, not networks or brands.
Now there is a relevant question of whether or not a beloved show like SATC being on Netflix hurts the streaming platform Max. The reason SATC left Prime Video in 2020 was because Warner Bros. Discovery was launching HBO Max and it wanted exclusive content to entice people to sign up for its new streamer. Exclusivity is a potent weapon, especially when a platform is just starting out. For many years, Netflix refused to license library content unless it was the only place the show could be streamed. But as it grew bigger, it cared less about that and now has quite a few shows (like Suits) that live multiple places. I suspect something similar is going on at Max. After four years, Warner Bros. Discovery execs have a good idea of what shows attract and keep subscribers, and what might be lost if audiences have options for where to stream them. My hunch is that SATC, while probably a strong performer (especially during last year’s 25th-anniversary push or when And Just Like That … has new episodes), is not as popular as Friends or Game of Thrones, and likely doesn’t bring in a lot of new subscribers at this point. I don’t think anyone deciding between spending $16-ish a month is going to choose Netflix over HBO (or vice versa) because of SATC.
But even if there are people like that, WB Disco execs have to balance out the revenue lost from slightly fewer subscribers and the money coming in from licensing. I’ve heard from some sources this week that Netflix is paying lower and lower rates for library shows, particularly as the power of its platform has grown stronger and its old media rivals weaker. That said, money is money, and companies like WBD and NBCUniversal need cash. The way things are going, it wouldn’t shock me if we woke up one day to the news that Friends or (more likely) The Office was back on Netflix — either because Max and Peacock decided they no longer needed them exclusively or because Max or Peacock no longer exist.