Judd Apatow fears that more series licensed by streamers will lead to fewer new series being made

Writer, director and producer Judd Apatow has made a lot of great TV and movies that have held up with fans over the years, including titles like Freaks and misfits, The forty-year-old virgin, To knock, Express pineapple, Girls, Loveand much more, and as a creator, he’s concerned about the direction streamers are taking with licensing popular series.

It was recently announced that Warner Bros. Discovery has struck a licensing deal Sex and the city to Netflix. Apatow is now looking ahead to the implications these types of deals could have on the industry in the years to come, telling Vulture:

“I am of two minds. There’s a part of me that’s an audience member: I’ll go back and rewatch Dead wood OR NYPD blue or any of David Milch’s shows. I understand why people like the comfort food of television. But it’s a scary thing as a television creator, because all the streamers are like, “Wait a second.” We don’t need to spend $200 million on a new show. We can just bring Barnaby Jones back.’ They will, so you’ll have fewer new shows.

He continued:

“They realize, Oh wait, Netflix can just buy shows from HBO, and I guess they’re cheaper than making new ones. So, at some point, Netflix will sell its shows to HBO and simply distribute all the episodes Dancers for the rest of our lives.”

Apatow also provided insight into the future of the industry, noting that “there are these corporate giants and people in the tech world taking control of creativity.”

“And for some of them – not all – their intentions are just time spent online. I don’t know if they are as obsessed with quality cinema as other owners of these entities have been in the past. That’s why they started calling it “content”. Suddenly, they decreased it as much as possible. I don’t think it would be that strange if I read something in the paper that Pornhub bought Paramount+.”

Apatow also said that movie studios have to take big risks, like Universal’s Donna Langley, who he bet on Oppenheimer.

“For example, who would think that anyone cared so much about Oppenheimer? Oppenheimer will earn nearly $1 billion. For example, does anyone talk about the inventor of the atomic bomb in their life? We don’t, but people have to take big risks, and then you realize: no, people want to be challenged. They want intelligent films. They want original cinematic experiences. You need a comedy equivalent to that.

While fans certainly want our favorite shows to continue streaming, we’re also constantly asking for original content. Hopefully studios will continue to bet on new stories and narrators.

via: Deadline