Time Warner, the owner of the DC Comics universe, is mulling making it a lot harder to cut the cord. The New York Times reports that, during a conference call this week, Time Warner chief executive Jeff Bewkes said that the company is weighing whether or not it should delay releasing popular DC shows to Netflix for years to come. The move would privilege those who prefer watching old-fashioned OTA television and, specifically, cable subscribers, who’d have no other choice but to keep their cable boxes to watch upcoming seasons on-demand.
If you want to keep watching Arrow and Supergirl, you may need to stick with cable
Time Warner wants to add value to cable
Traditionally, new seasons of shows wind up on Netflix and Hulu a year after their initial broadcast, and some of these shows are already on streaming sites. DC, however, has a uniquely massive presence on television at the moment, featuring ongoing comics-based shows like Gotham, Arrow, and even iZombie, along with upcoming series like Preacher and Legends of Tomorrow. Considering their collective draw —Supergirl, for instance, had the best premiere of any fall show last week — Time Warner clearly suspects it can keep viewers who want to stream those shows whenever they want tied to their cable subscriptions so long as they have no other alternative.
It’s an interesting, very cable-first, play, especially compared to Disney’s decision to make shows for both broadcast TV and Netflix set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whatever Time Warner finally decides, it’ll be interesting to watch this play out.
Update 11/5 12:40pm ET: This article has been updated to clarify that shows on broadcast networks can be viewed on OTA channels.
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
