Netflix might end up with TCM, Ted Turner’s ‘passion project’
Turner Classic Movies is going to be separated from its Turner brethren like TBS and CNN, but may soon land in the arms of the biggest streaming service on Earth: Netflix.
This could be good news for Ted Turner’s brainchild, an Atlanta-based cable network which airs original classic films without commercials and quickly became an iconic brand. TCM now possesses a dedicated fan base who flock to both TCM’s annual film festival and cruise experience. Many Hollywood elite also embrace the network as their own.
“I am more excited about TCM becoming part of Netflix than going anywhere else,” said Brad Siegel, who launched TCM in 1994 as president and handpicked respected film historian Robert Osborne as the network’s original host. “As a channel that doesn’t depend on advertising revenue, it can be integrated into Netflix painlessly. It can continue to be programmed for fans who love movies uncut without commercials presented the way they were meant to be seen.”
Netflix is currently seeking to purchase coveted parts of Warner Bros. Discovery for $83 billion and will get the Warner Bros. film and TV studios, the HBO Max streaming service and its vast library of content including the Harry Potter franchise, “Game of Thrones” and the DC Universe. Cable networks including CNN, TBS, HGTV and Discovery would be spun off into a new company called Discovery Global.
If the deal goes through, Netflix will for the first time own two cable networks: HBO and TCM, both ad free but very different beasts. In essence, Netflix doesn’t really want the shrinking cable operations but the prestige attached to both brands.
“Netflix wants to be seen as an arbiter of quality and a gatekeeper to the best of cinema past and present,” said Christian Blauvelt, a journalist who has written two books for TCM, one about films focused on New York and another about films during World War II, and was a guest host three times. “They have lured directors like Martin Scorsese and David Fincher. Adding TCM would give Netflix an aura of quality.”
Soon after David Zaslav took over the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery in 2023, he slashed the staff of TCM from 90 to 20, letting go Atlanta-based general manager Pola Changnon and other key staff responsible for curating the film lineup, producing intros and outros and creating original programming. Rumors emanated out of Hollywood that Zaslav might kill the entire network as a cost-cutting measure.
Blauvelt, who was at IndieWire at the time of the cuts, noted how Zaslav had touted making Warner Bros. a welcoming home for filmmakers and rebuilding bridges with directors burned by the previous regime. (Warner Bros. during the pandemic downplayed theater releases in favor of HBO Max.)
“If TCM is neglected, or God forbid, shuttered,” Blauvelt wrote, “it would be a massive loss to cinema culture. It would devalue Warner Bros. own legacy.”
His story reached the eyeballs of legendary directors Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson, who quickly demanded a meeting with Zaslav.
On the defensive, Zaslav promised them that TCM would survive. The trio released a statement at the time noting that TCM was “more than just a channel. It is truly a precious resource of cinema, open 24 hours a day seven days a week. And while it has never been a financial juggernaut, it has always been a profitable endeavor since its inception.”
The three moviemakers became TCM programming advisers, and TCM leadership fell to Warner Bros. Pictures bosses Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy.
“I was told from people within TCM that this basically saved the network,” Blauvelt said.
Blauvelt said TCM’s direct link to Warner Bros. Pictures may have helped TCM stay with the assets Netflix may be getting and not get marooned with its Turner Network sister stations at Discovery Global.
Turner launched Turner Classic Movies in 1994 as “a passion project of mine, born of my love for classic films,” Turner told Variety in 2019. “I’m very proud to have played a role in honoring these great works through the years, and hope they continue to provide just as much joy and entertainment to TCM viewers as they have to me.”
Through his spokesman, Turner declined to comment for this story.
Bob Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture lauded TCM for building an enduring brand that has maintained its mission from Day 1.
“They do what they do with care and precision,” Thompson said. “They do old films better than CNN does news or the Weather Channel does tornadoes. It serves its purpose both as a public museum for classic movies and an educational institution. As a professor, I see TCM as pedagogically sound.”
Currently, HBO Max has a section set aside for TCM. Netflix has said it will keep HBO Max as a separate service so it’s unclear where Netflix would place TCM in the future or how it will leverage the brand.
Changnon, who worked with TCM for 16 years and ran TCM from 2020 to 2023, is cautiously optimistic.
“I wouldn’t expect the TCM question to be top of the list of challenges for Ted Sarandos (head of Netflix) to address,” said Changnon, who is now chief content officer at the Atlanta History Center. “But protecting it could win him friends in the community.”
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
