Netflix Offering $100,000 Per Episode To Stream New Television Shows

Netflix is slowly but surely building a media empire. Just a few years back it was merely a website where you could rent movies by mail free of late charges. Now they've introduced stream-only subscriptions where members can view thousands of titles, both movies and television, online instantly. The next logical step, however, is streaming titles that aren't even available on DVD or Blu-ray yet. A movement has already begun to have first-run movies show up on Netflix instead of pay cable channels like Starz and HBO, but the company is going after the big fish: new television episodes.

The New York Post reports that Netflix is now trying to get studios to allow them to show current episodes of prime-time television series and their willing to pay a hefty price for them: $70,000 to $100,000 per episode. The move is largely being pushed by the company's competition with Google and Apple, both of whom are trying to make the same thing happen. Making matters even worse, studios and networks are in great conflict over the rights to the streaming material.

It goes without saying that streaming new episodes on Netflix is a major deal, particularly if they are commercial-less (the article doesn't specify). Affecting more than just the networks and studios, why would anyone pay $100 for cable or satellite service when they can just wait a couple hours and watch their favorite shows for only $8 a month? There are going to be a lot of people concerned about Netflix's growth, but as your average consumer I have two words: Yes please.