A small skirmish is brewing between Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix, and the recent renewal of “The Sandman” TV series adaptation appears to be something of a catalyst.
Deadline reports that Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav is unhappy with the way that Netflix deals are structured which parses out its payments to producers over the course of 18 to 24 months.
It’s indicated that’s one reason why, despite “The Sandman” clocking up 200 million hours viewed in its first ten days, it took three months to score its renewal order.
Zaslav’s displeasure with the long-standing arrangement, even as WBD recently secured new payments from Netflix when it launched its ad-tier recently, has now reportedly led to him instructing his teams to pause selling finished shows to Netflix for a few weeks.
Where this could become an issue is that Warner Bros. Television has become one of Netflix’s largest outside suppliers. They produce not just “The Sandman” but multiple other shows for the streamer including “Sweet Tooth,” “You,” and “Manifest” along with licensing a ton of its The CW series like “The Flash,” “Supernatural” and “Riverdale”.
What impact any such ‘pause’ will have – we’ll have to wait and see.
