It’s the end of an era for The CW and Netflix. The pact that began in 2011 and created a $1 billion windfall that helped save the network during a time when it was just an upstart that was losing money, will not be renewed. The pact was last re-upped in 2016, with a few modifications but it looks like as we move ahead, they will be severing ties.
The three new shows on The CW (Batwoman, Nancy Drew & Katy Keene) are being shopped for streaming deals individually by their respective studios. Batwoman, part of the DC Arrowverse on the CW, is solely owned by Warner Bros TV, and Nancy Drew by CBS TV Studios, Katy Keene is produced and distributed by WBTV, with financial participation of CBS Studios under the companies’ joint-venture agreement to co-produce CW series not based on owned IP.
Just to clarify, the deal ending doesn’t mean that these series won’t end up on Netflix like some of the past shows on The CW. This tactic has proven to be very successful for the network with Netflix giving Riverdale a huge boost between season 1 and 2 and it practically saved their recent freshman football drama, All American, from cancellation. The two sides not renewing their pact just means the SVOD service just won’t get them automatically via an output deal; instead, it will have to bid for each show in a far more competitive environment than the streaming marketplace in 2016. Past seasons of CW series that premiered through the current 2018-2019 season, like The Flash and Riverdale, will continue to stream on Netflix during the broadcast life of the series and beyond.
Batwoman is reportedly earmarked for the upcoming WarnerMedia streaming service. Its chief creative officer Kevin Reilly has been open about bringing new WBTV-produced CW shows to the service once the Netflix deal is up, saying in February that “we’re very interested in putting that on our platform.”
Nancy Drew & Katy Keene are both being shopped, with Netflix said to be among the contenders. Netflix would be a natural destination for WBTV/CBS Studios’ Katy Keene which, while different tonally, belongs to the same Archie Comics universe as Riverdale, part of the Netflix output deal, and Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, a Netflix original series. Both Riverdale and Sabrina are hugely popular on Netflix. Nancy Drew could go to CBS All Access in a streaming deal but it’s a younger-skewing show and CBS All Access has yet to cater to that demo so it may not be a natural fit for their service.
The end of the pact is a bit of a blow to Netflix although this is where this was naturally heading. It is part of an ongoing trend of content providers pulling their content from Netflix to put it on their own platforms. Disney, which had inked a rich movie output deal with Netflix in 2016 (just a few months before CBS and Warner Bros renewed their output deal for the CW content) also ended their pact, redirecting the studio’s features to their own upcoming streaming services Disney+.
That being said, Netflix is aggressively pushing original content that is being made in house and owned outright by the service, which is financially beneficial for the service. They’re expected to spend $15 billion on original content this year and that will go up to $17.5 billion next year.
