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Well, folks, it appears that reports of Netflix and the beloved ’90s sitcom Friends being on a break were slightly premature.
We now know that sometimes life does go that way and it’ll be staying on Netflix for at least another year. That’s another year to watch all 86 hours of relationship gaffes, holiday specials, and what really happened with the jellyfish.
Netflix also took to Twitter to assuage fans’ fears, who presumably hadn’t slept since the announcements yesterday, preferring to start their yearly binge-watching of the entire show early.
The Holiday Armadillo has granted your wish: “Friends” will still be there for you in the US throughout 2019 pic.twitter.com/Yd0VqRzk3r
— Netflix (@netflix) December 3, 2018
It’s expected that the ensemble comedy will move to WarnerMedia’s streaming platform in 2020, following the scheduled launch of that platform in the last quarter of 2019. There’s also a chance that it won’t be leaving Netflix at all, as the newly-signed agreement is “non-exclusive” so it might have a home on both platforms in 2020 and beyond.
More about the deal
This might go in WarnerMedia’s favor, as according to its CEO, Randall Stephenson, they want to “ensure [they] can offer appealing content but [don’t] necessarily want to disrupt existing distributors.”
That’s in stark contrast to the stance taken by Disney, which has been pulling its shows and movies off other services to collate them all onto the upcoming Disney+ streaming service. With so many competing streaming services (and more coming daily it seems) this decision to take each license as individual deals instead of a blanket exclusivity might just be what WarnerMedia needs.
ABC’s partnership with Hulu appears to be going well (although I hate only being able to watch six episodes at a time) and cord-cutters aren’t going to want to subscribe to multiple services again once they’ve already ditched cable for cost-cutting.
What do you think? Happy to see Friends staying on Netflix? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
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