There’s a lot of important people invested in seeing Turner Classic Movies, aka TCM, survive and be a fixture on cable. Chief among them are Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Paul Thomas Anderson, who all teamed up to help run the channel and keep it afloat back in 2023 when Warner Bros. Discovery and David Zaslav were ready to pull the plug for good.
Now though, TCM is poised to have another new owner — Netflix — should an $83 billion deal go through to buy TCM’s parent company. Though it was presumed, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed officially in a proxy filing Tuesday that should Netflix complete its acquisition of Warner Bros., the deal would include Turner Classic Movies. That’s despite the fact that Netflix will not be acquiring all of WBD’s other cable channels, including CNN, TNT, Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, and the like. WBD is planning a spinoff of its linear networks this year, but TCM, though it is a cable channel, is not among them and would be going over to Netflix along with HBO, HBO Max, and the film studio.
Netflix, of course, does not have any cable channels and almost certainly does not want them. Being anti-cable is kind of Netflix’s whole thing. Though who knows, since Netflix is now suddenly pro-movie theater and intends to put Warner Bros. movies in theaters for a full 45 days. Does that mean Netflix suddenly has a newfound affinity for classic film after watching Ben Mankiewicz talk about “Casablanca?” Maybe, but unlike WB’s film business, TCM is not bringing in $4 billion a year.
There’s a universe though where TCM continuing in some form with Netflix makes a lot of sense. These are probably similar options Netflix is weighing with HBO on a much, much larger scale. But TCM is near and dear to us, so we see five options for what Netflix could do with it:
Make a TCM Tile on Netflix
Much in the way Showtime has effectively been reduced to an added tab on Paramount+, or Hulu has been subsumed into Disney+ while remaining a standalone streaming service, the simplest course of action would be for Netflix to make a page, tile, row, or whatever on its home page that features TCM titles. One would think this would include classic Warner Bros. films from the library that Netflix would now own. HBO Max already has a ton of these and a dedicated TCM landing page, and if HBO Max sticks around, which for now it should, nothing should change there.
But Netflix in its earnings call Tuesday hinted that adding HBO Max could allow Netflix to adjust its pricing tiers. So getting access to HBO content or Warner Bros. movies could become an add-on at a premium price beyond Netflix’s current subscription tiers. Could TCM be bundled into that or have its own add-on for people who want a variety of choice?
The question would be whether Netflix in this scenario would let the linear cable channel continue or sunset it in favor of this branded option.
Launch a FAST Channel with TCM Branding
For as innovative as Netflix has been in streaming, one thing they haven’t felt the need to invest in are FAST Channels, or Free Ad-Supported Television. Netflix doesn’t do “free,” and it hasn’t had the need to. But beyond the Plutos and the Tubis of the world that have developed actual free streaming channels, streamers like Disney+ have added 24/7 streams of “Simpsons” episodes, for instance, simply because they have that sheer amount of content available. The Criterion Channel, too, has its own curated, 24/7 streaming channel of different Criterion films.
If Netflix were to add a 24/7 channel of all TCM films, plus the host intros and outros that make TCM unique, it could mirror what the linear cable channel is doing or be its own distinct, curated feed. Either way, it would be the closest approximation to keeping TCM alive on streaming rather than cable.
It would also represent a new form of viewing content for Netflix, something Netflix could experiment with for live streams of other content that Netflix would now have in its library through the Warner Bros. deal. 24/7 “Friends” channel anyone? Is there a market for that? Such channels could still have ads and provide a new revenue stream for Netflix, while a TCM channel could keep its sponsorships without ads to maintain the purity of the TCM brand.
Expand the TCM Classic Film Festival with Netflix Movies
Something like this would not surprise us in the slightest, even if Netflix were to kill off the actual TCM cable channel at some point. The channel could go away, but the annual festival could remain, and it could be Netflix’s way of doing what it always does when it comes to other live events, which is inject Netflix branding and ads into it. Could you see the TCM Film Festival screening “Roma” for its 10th anniversary alongside its other usual programming and trotting out Alfonso Cuarón for it? There could be worse things.
Netflix already tried something of its own with a recent showcase of Alfred Hitchcock movies at the Paris Theater and the Egyptian Theater, and curating a selection of movies for the festival that Netflix would later license and use as a means of eventually getting more people onto the Netflix platform seems like a logical step and means of getting value out of the TCM brand.
Let it Keep Doing Its Own Thing
This is the simplest, lowest risk option for Netflix, which is to just let TCM be — don’t mess with it, keep the cable channel afloat, let Marty, PTA, and Spielberg keep curating the programming, and just don’t make any enemies. The cost of keeping TCM is likely pennies to Netflix, and maybe it keeps TCM’s stable of hosts in the Netflix fold for other purposes, be it moderating other Netflix screening events or making other content for Netflix.
Honestly, please just do this one and not the next one.
Kill It or Ruin It with Ads
As already mentioned, Netflix is in the business of getting people to watch things on Netflix. It doesn’t do cable, so why would it really want TCM? How much added value could it bring in for Netflix other than maybe goodwill from classic film loving creators and audiences? If Paramount buys the bulk of Warner Bros. Discovery, it’s probably thinking the same thing as the Ellisons eye billions of dollars in cost saving cuts.
It’s not hard to imagine this scenario as a very real possibility, but it’s also not hard to imagine Netflix killing TCM inadvertently by suddenly airing “Red Notice” and “Damsel” on cable with a bunch of ads in between. Essentially, they would only keep the brand name, while diminishing any nostalgic appeal TCM once had. We can only hope Netflix likes some of the other options we outlined a bit better.
