The New York Times reported that a musical-themed Spongebob Squarepants spinoff about Squidward is coming to Netflix.
Netflix and Nickelodeon made a humongous deal the other day, with the two networks now having a multi-year deal that is presumed to be worth at least $200 million and the spinoff about Bikini Bottom’s snarky squid is part of it. No other detail has been released yet since the project is still early on in its developmental stage right now.
Prior to this huge announcement, Nickelodeon and Netflix have had dealings with each other in the past, with the streaming giant obtaining rights to Nickelodeon’s made-for-television animated features Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling and Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus which are new content for popular classic Nick titles.
Besides the two animated movies mentioned above, The streaming platform also acquired other Nickelodeon titles like Hey Arnold! Sam & Cat, and Victorious among others.
Even though the streaming giant will be getting a bulk of new Nickelodeon content both TV shows and movies in this blockbuster deal, other titles will probably not be available on the streaming site. The popular 200s show Drake and Josh that featured Drake Bell and Josh Peck, for example, is being streamed on Hulu and even other Spongebob Squarepants seasons are available on Amazon Prime Video during the deal Viacom and Amazon agreed to a multi-year deal back in 2013 after Netflix decided not to renew their contract with Viacom.
Having the Spongebob Squarepants franchise and other Nickelodeon titles added to their arsenal of content was a good move on Netflix’s part given the recent launch of Disney+ by the Mouse House in this unavoidable arms race between streaming platforms. Disney’s new streaming service’s subscription count was over ten million during its initial release and is going to be home to some of the most popular and liked kid’s shows and movies.
Disney+’s library will be massive given the number of acquired assets Disney has accrued over the past couple years with content from the likes of Pixar and Marvel bolstering up its library for both kids and adults alike. With Netflix’s new deal with Nickelodeon it can aide them in this unavoidable streaming war between them, Disney+ and HBO Go, and they will need all the resources they can get given that they are apparently going to slowly lose not only subscribers but other licensed content to other streaming websites during this streaming arms race.