Is The World Ready For A DC Network?

You’d have to be living under a rock to not have heard the news by now, that AT&T is purchasing Time Warner, the parent company for DC Entertainment, HBO, and a host of other networks and properties.

As it was reported, the merger hopes to marry AT&T’s telecomm logistics, with Time Warner’s premium content.

In addition, Warner Bros. Studios President Kevin Tsujihara recently hinted at the idea of the AT&T/Warner Bros. merger creating the opportunity for “Netflix type DC shows” .

With that news, it got me to doing all kinds of thinking; what impact (if any) would such a merger have on our beloved DC? Well, the more well-informed word around the internet, is that it would have little to none, as least on the creative side. But it got me thinking a bit more: what about other aspects?In addition to all things DC-related, both my wife and I are WWE fans. As such, we’ve been subscribers to the WWE Network for quite some time now. We watch the main weekly wrestling shows, and a few of the PPV’s on the network. The beauty about the WWE Network, is the value for the price; WWE boasts “6000 hrs of programming”, all for the low, low price of $9.99. When you divide that up by the number of days in a year, there’s not enough hours in the day to watch even a fraction of their content. We often have trouble keeping up with the main weekly content that we do watch.
Which brings me back to Warner Bros… Would the AT&T merger make this the perfect time to create a DC Network?Now granted, DC does not (yet) possess 6000 hours of programming, but it does possess a massive library of animation, live action TV, and a steadily growing film content.Films

DC’s film content is some of the oldest of all comics-related IP’s. Dating back to the early 40’s, there have been DC (under its various imprints)films consistently produced at least once a decade, all the way to the present day. I count over 100 hours of DC-related film content.

Live Action TV

Like their film library, DC’s TV content outnumbers any single IP in TV history. In this history, DC has showcased a wide array of DC’s properties. I put a rough estimate of over 1000 hours of TV programming.

Animation

I’m going to divide this between animated films, and animated series.

Animated Films

Yet another seemingly endless catalogue of material, dating back to the 40’s, with no apparent end in sight, as Warner Bros. releases no less than 3 animated films a year. I calculate roughly 100 hours of animated film content.

Animated Series

This one is a bit harder to nail down, but I put the count at roughly 500 hours of programming. As with the other formats, this list is sure to grow, as new animated series are developed, and new seasons of existing series are added.

Special Content

If Warner Bros. were somehow able to compile all the commercials, Youtube online, behind the scenes, and other special content from over years, I’m willing to bet it would add yet another 200 hours of content.

The content could be divided up by “Ages” (i.e. Golden, Silver, Modern, etc), as well as by medium (i.e. animation, film, etc), or even by hero (i.e. Superman, Batman, etc), which would make searching for content all the more easy.
So, how much would such content be worth? Would you be willing to pay $9.99 for monthly access to DC’s massive content library? Perhaps more, or even less?

Do you think a DC Network is on the horizon? Is it even a viable idea? Let us know in the comments below.

Sources: Deadline.com