Netflix’s library play looks brilliant until you think about infrastructure bill. Migrating hundreds of Petabytes isn’t a weekend project.
WB stored 15 petabytes of production archives with USC in 2014. This was everything apart from finished content (production assets, raw footage, VFX renders). At 30% annual growth, that’s 270 petabytes today.
Production archives run 10:1 to finished content. So the library of production content stands at 27PB. The Discovery merger added 200,000 hours of content.
Netflix built their business resurrecting catalog titles. NBCUniversal licensed Suits to Netflix in 2023 and it exploded from its original home on Peacock. Netflix’s algorithm makes library content valuable.
The Netflix QC moat means the responsibility for high quality incoming content lies with their supply chain delivering content within days. This is what powers their agility and ability to scale.
YouTube proves that anyone can create content now, but the mess of production is out of sight of the distributor / aggregator.
Netflix needs Warner’s library but can they stomach the direct impact this will have on their operating costs for the next 3-5 years?
Here’s the real question: is WB sitting on Hangar 51 (couldn’t resist an Indiana Jones / Disney metaphor), or is this a multi-year migration project waiting to happen