Netflix started its streaming video business by running shows that had appeared on television before, but now it is flipping the script and bringing the shows that originally ran on its streaming service to TV. Narcos – a Netflix original about drug lord Pablo Escobar — is coming to Univision, the Spanish-language broadcast channel, says Re/code.
Reverse migration
Later this year, Univision will air the first season of Narcos on its main network. The show will air before the debut of the second season on Netflix. Univision will also run the first season of Club de Cuervos on its UniMas network. Univision will run the first season of the Spanish-language series in advance of the show’s second season on Netflix.
On Tuesday, the streaming service and Univision announced that its original series Narcos would be shown on Univision. Both series debuted on the streaming giant last year. Club de Cuervos is about a soccer team, while Narcos is about Latin American drug kingpins in the late 1980s.
The reverse migration is certainly worth noting as here the video streaming giant is providing content to TV networks rather than the other way around. A few years ago when the company began creating shows people cared about, reverse migration was unimaginable. The popular streaming service is spending much more money even today on buying other producers’ old content than it does on the content it makes for itself, the report says.
Netflix not earning much from this deal?
This is one of the few times that Netflix’s original series will be shown on a traditional television network after a debut on the streaming service. Earlier this year, the streaming giant experimented with a similar model when the first two episodes of its new French drama Marseilles were shown on TF1 in France.
For Netflix, this does not look like a moneymaker. The streaming service is probably looking for some promotion of its shows and its service as the press release uses the words “promotion” and “promotional” three times, the report says. This suggests that the video streaming service is not getting paid enough to turn a profit on the shows or for licensing them to TV.
Citing one person with knowledge of the deal, The New York Times said Univision was paying residuals to performers and that the streaming giant was not paying any money for the promotion, although Netflix has not officially confirmed this.
