On Tuesday, July 7, Netflix officially inked a sweeping licensing deal with a sprawling consortium of digital publishers to stream short- and mid-form programming. The move immediately brings episodes ranging from two to 20 minutes to the platform’s ad-supported tiers.
Viewers in the United States and several international markets will see this newly licensed content hit their feeds on August 3. The strategy is obvious. The streaming giant is adopting a YouTube-style playbook to rapidly inflate its video inventory without shouldering the astronomical costs of producing original series.
Leading the charge is Penske Media’s PMX unit. They are rolling out established digital franchises from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Rolling Stone, which will debut titles like The Breakdown and My Life in 10 Songs. IndieWire is bringing its signature series What No One Tells You, and Billboard will supply 24 Hours With. Details of the negotiation were outlined in Variety’s exclusive report on Tuesday.
Other media heavyweights jumped on board immediately. Condé Nast plans to migrate its highly popular Bon Appétit cooking videos over to the streamer. Hearst Magazines, People Inc., Tastemade, and BuzzFeed Studios are also locked into the pact. Vox Media lifestyle brands, specifically Eater, are confirmed to join the initial August rollout.
That Vox Media inclusion is no accident. Just a few weeks ago in June, Penske Media Corp. swallowed up Vox’s entire portfolio, including The Verge and Thrillist. That aggressive acquisition crowned PMX as the world’s largest digital publisher. Now they are weaponizing that consolidated library scale to strike premium television deals.
Digital media companies are desperately searching for high-margin revenue to survive a severe collapse in digital advertising. Licensing already-produced videos to a premium streamer provides a crucial financial lifeline. For Netflix, it is a direct encroachment right into YouTube’s core territory of bite-sized journalism and lifestyle content.