Thousands of Netflix subscribers were left with a span of noses at the beginning of the year by not being able to continue watching one of their favorite series.
On January 1, 2021, the streaming content platform
stopped including the ten seasons of
Friends
and its fans saw how, from then on, one of the
most watched
shows
of the last 25 years on the planet became part from the HBO catalog.
The fundamental reason is the complex world of
streaming
licenses
, and in most cases, the disappearance of a program has nothing to do with the audiences it generates.
The platforms obtain the rights to series and films from studios around the world and, simply, those of
Friends are
no longer available for Netflix.
In other cases, although they still have them, the economic question (how much does it cost to maintain and renew them) comes into play.
The Big Bang Theory
,
The Prince of Bel Air
,
Gossip Girl
or
The Principal
are other titles with enormous success that have disappeared from Netflix in the last month.
Industry sources agree that licensing is a complicated and very broad subject that is evolving at a fast pace nowadays due to the proliferation of platforms.
Each one has its own strategy in the purchase of titles, but in recent times
there has been a tendency to maintain in the catalogs the contents that are property of the production company that also owns the platform
: the American Warner Media owns the rights from
Friends
(and also
The Big Bang Theory
), as well as HBO.
The same goes for Disney, which broadcasts its own series.
In this world of content acquisition, there are also cases in which distributors sell their titles to third parties, such as
Modern Family
, one of the series with the most followers today.
The Fox production is owned by The Walt Disney Company and the Walt Disney Company sells the non-exclusive broadcasting rights to various companies.
That's why
Modern Family
airs on Netflix, Prime Video, and HBO
.
It may also happen that a series is not complete on one platform and on another, yes, although that is rarer, but possible due to strategy issues.
An example of this is the famous
Outlander
, of which Netflix has the first four seasons, while the fifth, and last so far, can be seen on Movistar +.
How do I know if they are going to remove content that I follow?
According to Netflix, if the licenses of a movie or series are not renewed,
the platform publishes a notice when it is going to stop being available
(usually a month before), by means of the message "Last day to watch it on Netflix" on the top of the screen for a few seconds the first time the title is played.
"Available until ..." also appears on the Movie or Series Details page.
In the case of Prime Video, there is a section that warns of the contents that "
will expire in the next 30 days" (attention to the followers of series such as
Blacklist
and
Mr Robot
or the Harry Potter films, because they will no longer be there in February) .
Another way to know that our favorite series is not going to disappear is if it is produced internally or
if it has the exclusive rights to offer
its content
in
streaming
(something that is always communicated to the viewer), such as
Stranger Things
(Netflix),
The Gangs of London
(StarzPlay),
The Mandalorian
(Disney +) or
Game of Thrones
(HBO).
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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