©Sex and the City poster-HBO
Sex and the City—all 94 episodes of the HBO series—will begin streaming on Netflix on April 1, thanks to a licensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery that also includes Ballers, Band of Brothers, Insecure, The Pacific, Six Feet Under, and True Blood. The deal, however, is not worldwide: only viewers in the U.S. and selected European markets will have access to the programming. Nor does it include the spinoff series And Just Like That…, which remains exclusive to Max, HBO’s streaming platform.
Created by Darren Star and adapted from a book by Candace Bushnell, the popular Sex and the City series debuted in 1998, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, and Kim Cattrall as four New York City women trying to find love and fulfillment in the Big Apple. It was acclaimed for its acknowledgment of women’s autonomy and agency in the sphere of dating and romance.
Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of HBO. In November, HBO’s chair and CEO Casey Bloys described the strategy behind the licensing agreement, declaring that “We have to be protective of the shows that we have and are successful. But, you know, I’ve worked in television long enough that syndication used to be, that was the pot of gold. That was the brass ring that meant that your show was gonna go on and have a life after its initial run and live for decades. So the idea of selling a show outside of your ecosystem wasn’t an unusual idea.”
Bloys continued, “Obviously, streaming and companies kind of reorienting themselves has impacted that. But I think the way that we’re doing it somewhat cautiously, doing it co-exclusively, we’re never giving anybody an exclusive right to a show.”
Meanwhile, Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos was quoted in Deadline as having told investors last year, “I believe because of our distribution heft and our recommendation system that sometimes we can uniquely add more value to the studio’s IP than they can. Not all the time, but sometimes it does, and we are the best buyer for it. I am thrilled that the studios are more open to licensing again, and I’m thrilled to tell them that we are open for business.”
Sarandos added that “I think you’re good to remember the studios have always been in the business of selling their content to others, including direct competitors, for years.”Check out more of Edward’s articles