Did you miss that episode of Arrow or The Flash and need to go back and watch it? Are you a cord cutter who ditched satellite or cable television and want to watch your favorite DC Comics television series on Hulu or Netflix?
The way you view those series just might change soon, if Time Warner has its way. Recent comments made by the company's CEO Jeff Bewkes suggest that the company might have plans to hold off on allowing streaming services access to DC-related shows for longer periods of time.
Now, if you want to watch these series, Hulu lets you view them 24 hours after they air, with Netflix getting full seasons one year after they air. Time Warner's potential new plan means that those shows won't go up on streaming services that soon, though: you might have to wait years to catch episodes of those shows.
It's obvious that cable providers, such as Time Warner, are feeling the competition with streaming services, such as Netflix, heating up. Instead of embracing the trend of streaming services, though, the industry plans on attempting to thwart it, apparently forgetting the hard lessons the music industry learned when it chose to first ignore the Internet.
"Some of the media executives are looking at Netflix as a digital distributor who has gained too much power," said Bewkes in a conference call as reported by Shoot. "They are thinking, look, maybe we should keep our most valuable content inside the traditional pay TV ecosystem, which is the golden goose."
CBS takes a similar stance with its programming, but offers its own streaming service instead: that service gets its own original content as of next year with a new Star Trek series. Premium networks, such as HBO and Showtime, also recently embraced standalone streaming services to get their content to viewers who wouldn't watch it otherwise. However, Time Warner's stance could result in fans of its series resorting to piracy to get their shows without having to subscribe to cable or satellite.
Recently, a report released stating that Time Warner planned on releasing its own internet-only service: will that service offer DC shows as they air?
In 2013, cable and satellite lost over 80,000 subscribers to viewers who prefer streaming their content online. That number increases every year as more and more cable and satellite subscribers grow weary of the increasing monthly bills they receive from such services. Is Time Warner's plan really a way to get those people, who are already weary of such antics from cable and satellite companies, back?
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
