Fans of NBC's eternally popular sitcom Friends freaked out when they noticed that the series would be leaving streaming giant Netflix in the new year, with an expected expiration date of Jan. 1, 2019. However, much to the pleasure of fans of the show, Netflix officially announced earlier this week that show would remain on Netflix in the States throughout 2019. What they didn't mention, though, is just how much it cost them for that extension.
The New York Times reports that Netflix paid an astonishing $100 million to keep the show available for users for another year, a big jump from what they had previously paid to license the show for a year. Up until this year, when it came to renewing the contract between Netflix and WarnerMedia, the streaming company forked out $30 million.
Netflix and WarnerMedia haven't commented on the reported figure, but considering how important the show is to a lot of Netflix users, it would make sense they would spare no expense in keeping it around for another year. The reason behind the inflated number likely has something to do with AT&T, WarnerMedia's parent company, planning to bolster their own streaming options in the near future, and as such it's expected they played tough with Netflix.
