Netflix deal, looking like it may be over for H&M

[Thedom]

The rumours have been doing the rounds for a while, but Puck News now reporting it, which means it is very likely that their contract with Netflix will not be renewed.

"The streamer is not expected to renew its five-year, $100 million deal signed in 2020 with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Meghan’s passion project, the animated kids show Pearl, has already been canceled, and the unscripted cooking and polo offerings didn’t connect the way the royal couple’s Harry & Meghan did. "

puck.news/the-best-and-worst-deals-of-peak-tv-part-1/

When they dropped Pearl, Archewell said they would just shop elsewhere. Nobody picked it up.

I wonder if this will be the same

I suppose Meghan and Harry could start their own You Tube channel and try to monetise it. Cooking videos are quite popular.

And they could moan on about Catherine while making smashed avocado; whinge about Charles while hammering a steak; and scream about Camilla while chopping up chicken livers.

The season finale could be a full on rant about All The Things William Does Wrong while smashing around metal trays and spatchcocking a chicken.

The channel could be called something like ‘Grievance Cooking: Masterclasses with Meg and Him’.

Brilliant idea.

By the way, Lady Colin Campbell’s birthday fundraiser for Thomas Markle Snr seems to have disappeared without the money being handed over.

What do you think has happened to it?

Can’t say for legal reasons.

I honestly think William is going to remove their titles the moment that crown is on his head.

misread that as “William is going to remove their heads” 😵‍💫😆

I don’t think he will. I think he will let sleeping dogs lie unless Harry and Megan start their trash talking again.

Harry and Megan have reined it in recently, other than the idiotic lie over why he didn’t see Charles last visit and the ridiculous website relaunch that looked all royal but that they haven’t done anything with, they appear to be toeing the line. So something is going on behind the scenes.

eother they now realise how much it backfires or them or they have a threat from the palace. Charles maybe sicker than we know and Harry knows there is no tolerance there,

removing their titles is a detterant. They would hate it, so if they think it’s a risk they will baton down and behave.

I think he’ll remove their titles as well and I think he’ll take a very tough line with them.

Hmm, but HAVE they 'reined it in'?

I don't think so. They've just come back from a faux royal tour in Columbia. They are releasing details of a Harry visit to NYC. There will be more something soon I bet. They don't want a quiet life and privacy, which they could easily have had.

I'm not even sure they know what they want beyond the half in half out they originally asked for and were (rightly) denied. I bet the Queen is turning in her grave at Harry's behaviour, which is that of a spoilt entitled whingy brat.

I agree that William won't tolerate their behaviour once he's king. But I also think he realises that palace protocol and behaviour has served him and the RF well thus far and that giving them enough rope to hang themselves is working out and doing nothing has been the right thing too so far.

How intriguing. Her video 10 August says she's ending the fundraiser on Monday 12th. 13th August she says she's asked GoFundMe to send him the money (just under £56k) to Thomas Markle. 24th August there's a video from Thomas Markle saying thanks. I wouldn't give a penny to this horrible family, they are all cut from the same cloth including the youngest child. But I would be surprised if there has been some big scandal about this fundraiser that hasn't hit the papers, since it was widely reported in the first place.

With regard to the “half in half out” gig, I wonder what they would have actually looked like in practice? If they intended to live mostly in America and only swoop in for the engagements that they fancied doing, how would that have gone down with the rest of the family or indeed the general public? Wouldn’t cherry picking like that have looked somewhat entitled? 🤷‍♀️

Harry’s visit to NY is at the same time as the Earthshot event which William is scheduled to attend .

“I hear at least some of the cancellations on the list were prompted in part because the shows were deemed to have gotten too expensive. That is because of how many of Netflix’s series deals are structured. It is widely known that Netflix employs a “cost-plus” model, offering to pay upfront a show’s production costs plus a premium of 30%+ of the costs. Even after Netflix subtracts a distribution fee, outside studios are at break-even or in a positive territory from Day 1, versus having to deficit-finance series for the first few seasons on most traditional networks. But in exchange for the upfront payments, outside studios give up the potential upside that normally comes up with owning a long-running successful series, including off-network and international sales”

This is from an article in Deadline about how Netflix works

So Netflix pays upfront costs but even popular shows don’t get past 3 series. It’s about getting in Netflix subscribers in with new content and they judge if the asset is enough to bring people in.

However, I would think that Netflix may view Harry and Meghan as a spent asset. They aren’t going to drive in new subscribers. The polo show definitely wont and maybe they don’t think the cooking show will either. They’ve had 4 years and haven’t produced enough new content. The Obamas protection company has produced tonnes of stuff over the same period.

H&M won’t lose any money because the upfront costs are paid but If Netflix doesn’t pick up the show, it looks like Netflix contracts means it would have to be a network channel that takes it. Not another streamer. There really isn’t many networks that would, apart from the Food Network and there were rumours that they didn’t want it.
But it looks like it’s easier for Netflix just to cancel shows rather than try and renegotiate for a cheaper deal.

Also I think William was likely thrust into the role of 'my brother's keeper' during their teen years and early 20s as Harry by his own account was unstable.

It interests me that Harry would rather be seen as unstable than dimwitted. Around about the 20 years of age mark was when he really started hating the press (all of it, not just 'the tabloids') because he kept engaging with them, and they printed what he said, and some of it looked terrible, and so he hated the press, and he's been going round and round and up and down like Sisyphus ever since.

Instead, he could have worked with the royal family's press office to come up with a simply strategy of 'no commenting' when, say, asked about Chelsy Davey. 'I will not comment on private matters nor will I comment on a private citizen.'

Rather than do this, he fired off some really awful, stupid responses, the most infamous of which is, 'She's not black or anything, you know.'

(I'm quoting that, btw, from an archived Guardian article by Ben Summerskill (Jan 2005), not a 'tabloid'. It's really gossipy article and a bit of a weird read, given the passage of time, but I think Summerskill's quote is accurate.)

https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,1383309,00.html

Indeed. I suppose I was just musing on how the Sussexes could ever have thought such an arrangement would be acceptable 🤷‍♀️

Also I would think that productions costs for a 10 esp cooking series wouldn’t be that large. So it wouldn’t be a huge deal for Netflix to not put it to air. It’s why the bbc have dined out on cooking shows for years, cheap to make.
Unlike some of their shows that cost 10s of millions.

The polo show too, can’t see that being too expensive to cancel.

I think monetising your "brand" while being a working royal is impossible (and should be impossible) Eg Zara and Peter Philips can do commercial stuff and *Linley could have his furniture company without too much comment because a) they are effectively well down the royal food chain and b) definitely not "working" Royals funded by the Sovereign Grant.

The late Queen absolutely right and why Harry thought it would happen bewilders me.

*I actually quite respect Linley for setting up a proper business, even if it is eye wateringly expensive stuff!

I honestly think William is going to remove their titles the moment that crown is on his head. Literally. He'll be running out of Westminster Abbey to the Crown Office the very second that thing is lowered into his pate by the archbishop, lol

I think unless something drastic happens they'll wait it out.

As soon as Wales kids hit adulthood focus will be on them not aging Sussex's - they start settling down and having kids the Sussex's get rapidly pushed down in succession and importance.

Plus she never represented the monarch. She's never been official royalty. The only events she ever attended/attends are in a family capacity.

Because they thought they were the stars and could name their price ( so to speak).

I suspect that they wanted the high profile tiaras and meeting foreign VIPs rather than the small engagements.

The Sussexes swerved Trump’s visit to London and I suspect that this was proof that half in wouldn’t work - the RF have to meet and entertain who they are told to and personal preference can’t feature into it as they are the public face of UK diplomacy.

If they wanted to live like Zara then that would have been fine imo but they’d have to let go their jealousy of William and Catherine and not try to fight for equal roles to them.