Turner Chief Explains How TV Industry Will Neutralize Netflix

Turner Broadcasting chairman and CEO Phil Kent talked in depth about how the TV business is circling the wagons to marginalize Netflix.

Addressing what he called “the elephant in the room,” Kent singled out Netflix as the fly in the ointment when it came to the syndicated acquisitions two of his biggest cable properties, TBS and TNT, count on as key to their businesses. He spoke of a dawning awareness throughout the TV industry “to the long-term effect to having top-tiered programming on SVOD services,” he said, referring specifically to Netflix. “We tell our suppliers, the studios we buy from: This is going to have a significant impact on what we'll be willing to pay for programming or even bid at all.” But if you thought Kent was being hard on the studios—Warner Bros. is actually a corporate sibling of Turner’s—that’s nothing compared to what he says the industry is doing to Netflix to effectively block Reed Hastings from getting his hands on premium TV series. The new and old broadcast sitcoms and dramas Turner pays billions for may never even get an opportunity to be on Netflix because Kent implied SVOD rights are being “frozen” in the latest rounds of dealmaking.