Netflix pays $100 million USD for Friends reruns

Shouldn't they spend that on newer original content? I'm not subscribe to Netflix to watch Friends

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/business/media/netflix-friends.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

are they even making profit from friends?

It's not the profits from Friends, it's the subscribers. So having Friends, the Office, etc. gets people to tune into Netflix. Friends has a HUGE following and people will rewatch that show over and over again.

@sonic_spark: My wife can watch shows over and over. She has gone through Sex and the City and 70's Show at least 7 times each.

Although most of us hate it, if they paid so much it means a lot of people are watching the show on Netflix hence the purchase.

It seems like Netflix is always stuck in second gear.

That show had a crazy reach.

Does it? I only know it as a show my parents watched in the late 90s. I've never heard anyone online or offline mention it in years.

Anyway, it's good to know that the price increase money is going towards such exciting new content.

Yeah Friends has one of the biggest followings of any tv show ever. Only a handful have more. Scared to imagine how much it would cost for streaming rights to Seinfeld.

There are others? I am interested, what other shows have more influence than Friends? Friends really captured the world over, not just USA and its hard for other tv shows to even do half

The only thing I can think off is Mr. Bean

Fraiser > Friends

@sakaixx: Mr Bean was great!! The only two that were on the same audience level ad Friends that I can think of were Fraiser and Seinfeld.

I love Friends. A channel in my country has been airing it for more than 15 years, over and over again in the weekends. And I keep watching it and laughing. Truly a great sitcom.

@vaidream45: Friends was much bigger than Seinfeld and Frasier outside of the USA. The only other American sitcoms with a comparable global reach are Fresh Prince of Bel Air and The Big Bang Theory.

I can't understand why TBBT got to be so popular? I've watched that show 3 or 4 times and didn't even grin. A majority of the seasons of Night Court was really good. M*A*S*H* ,Three's Company, etc ...

To be honest, $100 million to much.

I've re-watched many many many seasons of content on shows, and so have many others. Futurama, Dexter, Firefly, The Office, Parks and Rec, and so on.

While I personally don't care much for Friends, I know millions of other people do, and this is just another reason to stay subscribed to Netflix. This is a smart move, and frankly I think 100 million is a little low.

Agreed. A show that was too smart to be as popular as it should have been. But still popular enough :D

Netflix original content is hit or miss...more miss of late, it seems.

Jesus how young are you

25. You act as if Friends is recent, it started in freaking 94. I remember the finale in 2004 and haven't heard anyone mention it since then.

@lordlobster: Just Seems weird to refer to Friends as something your parents watched, I'm 32 and watched it all from about 1996 onward.

Makes me feel old.

Only watched snippets of Friends. this probably is a great opportunity to revive my interest.

That's a lot of dollar. I'd be interested in watching a few episodes though. I'd say my favourite sitcoms were Everybody loves Raymond and Two and a Half Men. I unfortunately could never get into Seinfeld. It's seriously clever but the comedy never made me laugh out loud. :(

why did raymond kids have blond hair when he & his wife didn't have blond hair? did raymond wife had an affair?

That's a whooping amount.

@vaidream45: "Scared to imagine how much it would cost for streaming rights to Seinfeld."

Doesn't Sony allow it on Crackel for free?

@PSP107: Been a few years since I've bothered with Crackel. If I remember correctly though, they only had like 10 to 15 random episodes taken from different seasons. Nowhere near the full episode list.

@kylomen: kids can express traits that neither parent appears to possess.

@heathen75: "Been a few years since I've bothered with Crackel. If I remember correctly though, they only had like 10 to 15 random episodes taken from different seasons. Nowhere near the full episode list."

I think you're right.

@vaidream45: Seinfeld has not aged as well as friends. I’m a bigger Seinfeld fan too, but I’ll admit it.

Three possible explanations:

1. It's not uncommon for kids to be born with lighter skin/hair/eyes, which then darken as they grow up. So it's possible his wife may have been blonde when she was younger, before becoming brunette.
2. His wife may have been a blonde who dyed her hair brunette.
3. Either of them may have had ancestors with blonde hair, which they did not inherit physically but carried on genetically, and passed on those genes to their kids. For example, there was a white couple who had a kid who appeared black, due to one of them having a black ancestor somewhere down their family tree.

Blonde is recessive so parents without blonde hair if they have the gene can, in fact, have blonde children. The more you know............

I know the show is great and I love it, but I can't imagine myself ever rewatching a TV series when there's new stuff up all the time.

My wife has gone through it at least three times since Netflix became a thing.

How has Netflix not gone bankrupt yet?

Who keeps pouring money into this blackhole?

So no one told you Netflix was gonna be this way.

Cord cutters, for one.