• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 6 hours ago

So, now it has happened -- the leader in TV streaming is taking over one of the most storied brands in movies and television, 102-year-old Warner Bros.

But in the process of absorbing Warner Bros., Netflix passed on the basic-cable side of Warner Bros. Discovery, leaving the company’s portfolio of basic-cable platforms -- at least 25 by my count on the WBD corporate website -- to sink or swim on their own.

Netflix is 28 years old. It entered the streaming business 18 years ago in 2007 and in the years since has changed everything.

But 18 years is just a blink of an eye compared to the company it is buying, which produced its first movie before talkies.

Warner Bros. may be old, but there is still enough there apparently for Netflix to agree to buy the company from Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal worth $72 billion in cash and stock, Netflix disclosed in its official announcement on Friday morning.

For that sum, Netflix is buying Warner’s vast content archives and production capabilities that are still humming after 102 years. Also included in the package: HBO and the WB streamer, HBO Max.

The symbolism is clear: Streaming is where it’s at today with a business model that can be summed up in three words -- content, content, content. Oh, and here is another three words: Always be producing. 

The Netflix strategy has long been based on continuously filling its streaming pipeline with new and licensed content, the more the merrier. 

Buying Warner gives Netflix plenty of existing content and production resources to make more. Buying a competing streaming service, HBO Max, makes Netflix an even bigger player in streaming, a leadership position it already has.

So everything’s coming up roses for Netflix, pending the completion of this deal, which might take as much as 18 months to close.

But what of basic cable? The splitting of WBD into two separate companies -- Warner Bros. and Discovery Global -- is well underway. Netflix is buying only the Warner Bros. half.

The Discovery properties that the world’s largest distributor of TV content did not want include CNN, HGTV, Discovery, OWN, TBS, TNT, TLC, Animal Planet, Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network and more -- all brand names well-known to everybody, but nevertheless struggling against the prevailing current to find a pathway to future growth.

Not interested in CNN? That says something about the state of basic cable today that the biggest company of them all -- Netflix -- has no interest in one of the world’s best-known media brands.

But when you stop and think about it, what would Netflix want with a bunch of basic-cable networks anyway?

If Netflix has no interest in owning a stable of basic cable networks, then apparently Paramount has no problem with it.

On Monday, Paramount -- owner of a string of basic-cable channels including MTV and Comedy Central -- made a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, including the Discovery cable networks, worth $108 billion, according to Paramount.

This column has been updated.