Last December, Netflix announced it was acquiring most of Warner Bros. Discovery, excluding certain sports and news properties such as TNT Sports and CNN. While the deal is still pending – and Paramount is actively trying to prevent it – if completed, Netflix would own popular franchises like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, DC, and many other well-known brands.
Netflix is adding a significant number of TV shows produced by Warner Bros. Television. In 2025, shows like Animal Kingdom, Blindspot, Castle Rock, How to Make It in America, Mom, The Closer, and The West Wing became available. January 2026 alone brought even more, including Found, Teen Titans GO, The Lying Game, Rizzoli & Isles, Southland, Veronica Mars, Prodigal Son, Falling Skies, The Following, and 11.22.63. More shows are coming in February, such as Suburgatory, Night Court, Search Party, and What I Like About You. International viewers will also gain access to popular WBTV series like Smallville, 2 Broke Girls, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, ER, Everwood, The Amazing World of Gumball, and new episodes of Rick and Morty.
Netflix customers seem to be seeing positive results from the recent acquisition, though other factors could also be at play.
Major Studios Have Been Licensing More of Their Content to Netflix for a While Now
TNT
The recent agreement for Warner Bros. Discovery to license content to Netflix isn’t automatically linked to their larger deal. During the peak of the streaming competition, services were very protective of their shows and movies, using exclusive content to attract viewers. However, as the competition continued, that approach became more flexible. A good example of this shift is how all the James Bond films – previously a prized possession of MGM – are now available on Netflix.
Look, at the end of the day, studios are businesses, and they’re realizing a huge revenue stream is licensing their shows to Netflix. Even with Disney+, Paramount+, and all the others popping up, Netflix is still where everyone is watching. And that means anything that ends up on Netflix gets a massive boost in visibility. A perfect example is Manifest. It was a Warner Bros. show that NBC canceled, but when it hit Netflix, it exploded in popularity, and Netflix brought it back for a final season! That kind of revival is still unusual, but it really highlights how much power Netflix has to get people watching shows, whether they’re huge hits or smaller gems.
Generally, big movie and TV studios are hesitant to license their most popular content to Netflix. For instance, you won’t find classic Disney movies on the platform. While Warner Bros. Television is offering older shows like The West Wing and Rizzoli & Isles for streaming, they aren’t sharing episodes of current hits such as Heated Rivalry or A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Maintaining exclusivity is still important to studios, though it’s not as strict as it used to be.
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Currently, Warner Bros. Television shows are typically licensed to Netflix for only one year at a time. If the acquisition goes through, those shows could end up streaming there permanently. Otherwise, we’ll continue to monitor the situation and see what happens.
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2026-01-27 20:02