Will Netflix Ever Acquire Streaming Rights To True Detective?
By Josh Hill
True Detective is a force of nature, even with it being off the air for so many months, but it’s still a hot commodity. Amazon dealt Netflix a harsh body blow with their HBO pact this summer, they won’t be getting every show that HBO airs and one of the more notable shows left off the menu is True Detective. This doesn’t mean that the show will never be part of such a pact but it means that Amazon is out of luck.
This bring Netflix back into the discussion as they’ve seen Amazon’s play and can counter with brutal hey maker if they were ever able to secure the streaming rights to true Detective — but the question is would HBO ever let that happen?
As Reverend Lovejoy of The Simpsons fame once said, the short answer is no with a but and the long answer is yes with an if.
No, Netflix will never get True Detective because HBO needs to keep making HBO Go lucrative enough to keep around. They’re already giving up The Sopranos, The Wire, Oz and other classic shows to Amazon which means you don’t have to be subscribed to HBO to see them. But, Netflix could finagle a deal that sees them air episode a year or so from now — possibly even this fall after the Blu-ray has been out for a few months. Once the Blu-ray comes out, the need for True Detective to be exclusively available on HBO Go isn’t as necessary.
The other answer is yes, Netflix will get True Detective if HBO continues to lighten up its hold over it’s own shows. The reason the Amazon deal was so massive is it’s the first real time that HBO has allowed another company to use their shows for free and that’s a big deal. Netflix is the cream of the crop and if there’s a place HBO would want to sell some of its streaming rights that place would be Netflix. They’re in competition though, as Netflix is killing cable television and HBO is on the other side of the battlefield.
It would be amazing business for both HBO and Netflix to partner on True Detective, as we’ve seen what Netflix has done for the popularity of shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad but there’s no guarantee that HBO needs that type of help.