Since the merger between HBO Max and Discovery became official, the headaches for the people of Warnermedia have been directly proportional to the shocking decisions – to label them somehow – that have been made. Among them, in addition to the notorious discarding of ‘Batgirl’ once its filming was finished, is the surprising cancellation of ‘Westworld’ and its withdrawal from the HBO Max catalog.
Shortly after the production of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy ended, we learned that the company had opted for sell the broadcast rights of the series to free access streaming platforms with ads —known as FAST in Shakespeare’s language—; specifically to Roku and Tubi. But now we have learned new details about the reasons that led to the maneuver.
By the face
During an extensive conversation with Variety, Casey Bloys, CEO of HBO Max, has shed some light on the cancellation process and sale of ‘Westworld’.
“The conversation was, what is the right amount of money for streaming? Which means, what is the right amount of money to spend on HBO Max original series? And the backlog conversations, does it have to be every series that we have on HBO Max exclusively on the platform? I would say no. People forget that the history of television was DVDs. They are expensive series to produce. The idea that they are going to stay in a catalog forever for 15 dollars a month…TV has never worked like this.”
Furthermore, Bloys has pointed to some evidence that goes unnoticed: there are many people who do not want to pay for a streaming serviceand this provides a very juicy window focused on that sector of the population.
“I think people sometimes forget that there is a large majority of the population that does not want to pay anything for a streaming service, not only here, but all over the world. In the same way that Netflix was something new, we are going to put some series there, to show them to new audiences and see how they do I have no idea if FAST [televisión gratuita en streaming con anuncios] It’s going to be a big deal, but I know some people don’t want to pay and are okay with having ads. And that is a potentially very large audience and a new audience for a series. So it’s something we’re trying to do.”
Seeing the fantastic reception that the Netflix ad-supported basic plan In our country, the reflection of the CEO of HBO Max makes more sense than ever. After all, we’ve been consuming linear television for too long to care now about a few ads between movies.