Netflix, AMC “Collection” License Agreement Giant’s Power Streaming Show

One possibility is that Netflix users watch your show, then realize it came from your network, and then eventually come to the network to watch more of your programming.

That’s what happened years ago when Netflix started showing old episodes of AMC’s “Breaking Bad” while AMC was still airing new episodes of the show, and “Breaking Bad” ratings soared. This is good for the long-term health of your network.

Another possibility is that Netflix users are watching your show, have no idea it came from your network, and don’t care. They just think it’s a Netflix show because they saw it on Netflix. This is bad for the long-term health of your network.

That both possibilities exist helps explain why major media companies have taken an on-off-on approach to licensing Netflix.

In the beginning, when Netflix was just building its streaming business, the media was happy to make these deals and thought Netflix was kind of dumb. Then once they realized that Netflix was killing them, they took a lot of their stuff off of Netflix and put it on their own streaming services. Now they’ve started selling Netflix their good stuff, again, because they need the money.

Which brings us to Monday – the first day of a new licensing agreement between AMC and Netflix. In addition to licensing shows that have been on Netflix for a long time, like “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead,” AMC is now also selling the streaming rights to shows you may not have seen or even heard of , such as “Anne”. Rice’s Interview with the Vampire’ and ‘Monsieur Spade’. This is all very standard.

What appears to be new is that Netflix has now agreed to bundle all AMC shows into a “collection.” So, in theory, a “Better Call Saul” fan could learn that the show is from AMC and that AMC also has “Gangs of London.” And you can watch the first two seasons of it on Netflix too.

AMC is excited about it and announced it on its earnings call earlier this summer, describing it as “an innovative business to strategically curate and display the past seasons of 15 AMC-branded shows” on Netflix.

I pay a lot of attention to Netflix and I’ve never seen the streamer point out what network or studio something is from. Unless it can call something a “Netflix Original,” which it does a lot (sometimes even when that’s a little misleading). And I know that’s definitely something that the TV and film guys have asked for in the past.

So I was curious to see what that looked like and…boy, it was hard to find. There’s nothing on my Netflix home screen — neither on my phone nor on my TV — that indicates there’s an AMC “collection,” even though Netflix knows I’ve watched a lot of AMC shows like “Breaking Bad” before.

Because I knew there had to be, I typed “AMC” into the Netflix search bar and eventually got this page, which is really a neat collection of AMC stuff.

But what are the odds of someone typing “AMC” into a Netflix search bar? I’m guessing very, very low.

There has to be more to it, right? Surely Netflix will eventually give AMC a row on its powerful home page — the kind they use now, with tags that are either super-generic (“Blockfire Movies”) or embarrassingly detailed (“For that you watched “The Equalizer”). At least for some users.

Then again, I’m an AMC show watcher, so you’d think they’d get this to me soon enough, if not already. And it’s one thing to give AMC a row – quite another to put it somewhere you can find it.

A Netflix representative declined to comment.

But until I hear or see otherwise, I have a hard time believing that Netflix will dedicate significant screen space to a single provider, even if they give Netflix really good stuff like “Breaking Bad.”

Because Netflix now has the upper hand with the TV guys. Hard to see why they would make any concessions at all.

*Yes, it’s a stressful job! In a declining industry! On the other hand, you get paid a lot of money.