‘Young Sheldon,’ ‘Sex And The City’ Deliver Big Bang Of Netflix Views Amid Licensing Renaissance

Netflix‘s latest data dump shows licensing is back with a bang.

The U.S. streaming giant has spent recent months animatedly hoovering up rights to legacy titles from rivals including Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney.

Viewing data for the first half of 2024 appears to show that the strategy is paying off, with a number of titles featuring prominently in Netflix’s most-watched list.

One of the best-performing buys has been Young Sheldon, the Big Bang Theory spin-off that had been exclusively streaming on Max until last November.

The first five seasons of the comedy series cumulatively pulled nearly 106M views into its orbit, with Season 1 charting in 25th place in the most-watched TV list.

Similarly, Netflix also licensed HBO’s Sex and the City from April this year, with six seasons of the show registering a combined 33M views.

There was a similar story in movies. Universal Pictures’ The Super Mario Bros. Movie had 80.3M views between January and June, making it the fifth biggest feature. It was ahead of Netflix originals including Rebel Moon.

Aquaman, another Warner Bros. Discovery title, also performed swimmingly with 15M streams during the first half of the year.

For Netflix, licensing deals can unlock old titles to many millions of its members, as was seen with Suits, which became the hottest show of summer 2023.

For Warner Bros. Discovery and others, licensing is increasingly seen as a way of sweating assets as Netflix cements its dominance in the streaming game.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos spoke about the strategy in January. “I guess I’d call you back to that history again and just say we’ve got a rich history of helping break some of TV’s biggest hits like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. Even more recently with Schitt’s Creek,” he said.

“We can resurrect the show like Suits and turn it into a big pop culture moment and also generate billions of hours of joy for our members. I think you’re good to remember the studios have always been in the business of selling their content to others, including direct competitors, for years.”