Today several users reported that a handful of significant Cartoon Network shows—including Ben 10, Steven Universe, Regular Show, the 2016 Powerpuff Girls revival, Amazing World of Gumball, We Bare Bears, and Chowder—were suddenly no longer streaming on Max with the turn of the month, with no prior announcement of their impending removal.
Just removing Steven Universe alone seems insane to me. I’m not into it, but it has a massive fan base.
From my understanding, Max has to pay every time the show is viewed. So there’s a calculation they have, how many subscribers will they lose by removing it?
For reference, they removed Westworld.
It’s too bad they couldn’t pay a certain amount in one lump sum to produce a limited number of, say, small physical discs that play video for people to buy more often.
They removed Westworld? So they’re removing their own IP that they own?
The last season of Westworld was so interesting and then it was canceled. （︶︿︶）
But… wouldn’t that “take up” the views of other shows?
In other words, the consumer has X amount of time for HBO Max, so they’d either be paying for more views on another show or a potential lost subscriber who can’t find anything to watch, right?
And, with all due respect, there’s no way cartoons are more expensive-per-view than other shows.
Ideally they would subscribe and then watch a different service. Or maybe a different cartoon is cheaper per view. Or maybe it’s a retroactive contract negotiation tactic. Basically negotiate or you won’t get any residuals.
Thats so cynical and self defeating. “They’ll use our competition and save us money.” But you’re not wrong, they could totally be thinking that rofl.
Very possible. I guess all that is even more behind-the-curtain than cable, as when shows disappear there is no reason given, no “protest” like some channels will do.
I feel like streaming has made all this stuff even more opaque.
Max pays who? Warmer Bros owns both Max and Cartoon Network. Are they legit paying themselves, that’s so stupid it must be true.
I think it’s the people who worked on the show, like the actors.
I mean, in a large company, that is often how things are done.
Departments have their own budgets and pay each other to work on various projects.