It’s been announced Netflix will buy a substantial portion of Warner Bros — what might it mean

Let’s immediately make it clear this is speculation. The deal may have been announced as an intention, but there are many hurdles between the announcement and any deal completing. Well touch on the business aspects, but first let’s pretend it all goes through swimmingly…

Netflix buys Warner Bros — what might 2027 look like for the streamer

In the fantasy world where the deal completes as stated, Netflix gets ownership of a lot of IP. As a relatively new company, it has no substantial back catalogue. In this new world, they would now own The Big Bang Theory, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, The Wizard of Oz and the DC Universe. We assume existing licence deals would continue, but at some stage, imagine Game of Thrones in its entirety coming to Netflix?

We expect as the deal is announced at the end of this year, and a year of regulator / union / US government… scrutiny would lead to a big launch at the start of 2027.

In term of numbers, HBO has around 128 million subscribers, Netflix around 300 million. Expect strict competition scrutiny.

The deal is also currently valued at $72 billion. How does that get paid for longer term? Will prices rise or even perhaps fall due to the huge subscriber base? We expect the former.

What are the obstacles

Unions are likely to be anxious as the deal may well mean fewer titles being produced (we’d suggest the market is too large and audiences would prefer fewer choices of subscription to fund). Paramount Sundance were also bidders, and may yet find a way to steal the deal. Then there’s the US government — Trump is oft described as pro-Paramount, what will that mean?

We expect a lot of activity in 2026, and the deal isn’t done yet. For now, we quote the Netflix email to subscribers:

There’s a dedicated Help section on the Netflix site if you want more information. We’ll revisit time to time and bring you any major updates.