When Warner Bros Discovery decided to not release batgirl and completely get rid of it, they did this so they could get a tax write off for it. Warner Bros Discovery has now saved about 3.5 billion dollars by cutting shows, staff and taking content off their streaming platform HBO Max.

It turns out that they were ahead of the rest of the steaming services when it comes to moves like these. AMC is expected to take 400 million in write downs and has already canceled shows and reversed decisions about creating new ones. This includes shows that have already been shot such as 61st street and Invitation to a Bonfire.

Some other examples include Paramount plus canceling the workaholics movie 5 weeks before production. HBO Max is not moving forward with JJ Abrams show Demimonde due to its 200 million dollar budget.

These are some of the more drastic moves being made to save money but acts like this are happening to most streaming services.

Streaming services are now prioritizing profit over subscriber growth due to a lot of streaming services are actually losing money right now.

In an article published by Variety it said that Disney lost 1.5 billion dollars from their streaming services this year. That played a part in them firing their CEO Bob Chapek whose main focus was on growing disney’s streaming service.

Although Netflix lost subscribers for the first time in a decade there are more reasons for canceling shows than just money for them. In an article published by Forbes it suggests that Netflix can track something called “completion rate.” This is so that they can see how many people finish watching the show. So the Forbes article suggests that the mark is “50%” to help improve a show’s chance at renewal. So a show like 1899 which apparently “had a dismal 32% completion rate” suggesting people did not finish it.

A lot of times for Netflix the ratio between cost and viewership is just not good enough. For something like archive 81 variety suggested “ these projects often cost the most to make” meaning they need really high viewership numbers to continue. 

This trend of Netflix canceling shows does not look like it is going to stop. Between all the data that they have, it can be expected that even though a lot of people may like their next big show, it could still get canceled. Whether it is production costs, viewership or some other statistic that netflix doesn’t like.

Nowadays streaming services are more likely to be a little more picky about what they produce and how much money they are willing to spend. So expect to keep seeing shows that are well liked canceled.