Warner Archive’s Streaming Service Shutting Down

Warner Archive’s streaming service is shutting down. Launched in 2013 as Warner Archive Instant, the service offered subscribers a mix of films, TV shows, and made-for-TV movies drawn from the Warner Bros. library. Some of the TV shows available at one time or another include Cain’s Hundred, The Gallant Men, Man from Atlantis, Maya, Logan’s Run, Beyond Westworld, SEARCH, The Lieutenant, Jericho, The Jimmy Stewart Show, Lucan, and Bronk.

The good news for subscribers? Warner Archive has partnered with another subscription streaming service called FilmStruck. All existing subscribers to Warner Archive’s streaming service are now FilmStruck subscribers. Most of the films available through Warner Archive’s streaming service are now streaming through FilmStruck.

The bad news? None of the Warner Archive television programming has moved to FilmStruck.

According to Warner Archive, its streaming service will cease to exist after April 26th.

The Warner Archive Collection, which releases films and TV shows on DVD and/or Blu-ray, is unaffected by the streaming service shutting down.


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11 Replies to “Warner Archive’s Streaming Service Shutting Down”

  1. Warner Brothers should try to strike a deal for the classic TV library. They control such classics as Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip. Perhaps Netflix would be interested now that they’re losing the Fox and Disney shows.

  2. I had been a subscriber off and on to the service. At $9.99 a month it was always the most overpriced service and its lack of TV content made it an even lower value to me.

    Of the streaming services out there Hulu has the most interest in TV. Netflix is heading towards more original shows. Amazon Prime might be interested. Disney and Fox are not going to change until 2019 as legal issues keep Fox the same and Disney’s streaming service won’t start until 2019 at the earliest.

    I expect WB to focus on its movies and treat its TV library like syndication and sell series individually to highest bidder. Shows such as 77 Sunset Strip and Maverick will be easy to find new homes.

    1. If the WB does sell things off I can’t see the movies and TV sticking together. But if you consider that the CW is heavily dependent on WB shows, that the CW is owned by CBS and that CBS is trying to build it’s All Access service, it’s very likely that CBS could grab WB’s TV division. It would give them a lot of older shows for their streaming service and open up access to movies for their service.

      1. WB and CBS co-own CW which grew out of the merger between the UPN and WB networks. I think WB would make a better profit in a bidding war among the services.

      2. CBS is only interested in new shows for its service, like Star Trek: Discovery and a few new others, and all those will be original productions from CBS Television Studios, not Warner Bros. Television. The company could put these shows on the diginets (Antenna TV, Cozi, Retro TV, Decades, Heroes & Icons) where they would work best.

  3. Really disappointed; I have enjoyed the Warner Archive streaming service, primarily for the classic TV shows like Surfside Six, Hondo, Maya, Flo and Daktari to name a few.

    That said, Hulu would be a good fit.

  4. I heard rumor that WB was in financial trouble and looking to sell. This could be the reason for the service shutting down. It could affect everything from the CW to the Warner Archive.

    There’s a practical limit of how many streaming services one can afford. Every major producer wants to start it’s own service but the public doesn’t want to be paying the same amount for Internet streaming as they’re paying for satellite and cable. And if the service doesn’t offer the same amount of new content as a broadcast channel people won’t stick with it. Many old shows can be found on DVD and some fans will choose that route.

    1. There’s a practical limit of how many streaming services one can afford. Every major producer wants to start it’s own service but the public doesn’t want to be paying the same amount for Internet streaming as they’re paying for satellite and cable.

      Most of these streaming services are cheap to afford compared with cable and satellite, and a person could conceivably buy a few of these for less than what they pay for cable and satellite.

      Many old shows can be found on DVD and some fans will choose that route.

      As I said above, many of the old Warners shows could be put on the diginets (MeTV, Decades, COZI TV, Heroes and Icons, Laff, GRIT, Bounce, GetTV, Antenna TV, Escape, THIS TV) with little or no problem or Warners could start it’s own diginet channels if it wants-MGM has already done this with THIS TV and Comet, composed of shows and movies from the United Artists and post 1984 MGM libraries (the pre-1984 ones are owned by Warner Bros., as everybody knows.)

  5. AT&T is trying to buy Time-Warners but the Justice Department is fighting it in the courts. CW is co-owned by CBS and Warners so little would change there. Time-Warner also owns the Cartoon Network which still has a streaming service called Boomrang that just announced more improvements and content for the service.

    The future is streaming services as more people cut the cord and abandon cable. You can now watch live events on YouTube, Yahoo, Hulu and other streaming services. Sling TV you can get through streaming and it covers reality programs networks such as HGTV and Food Network. There is little cable services can offer today that is not available on some streaming service.

    Add the growing popularity of Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire, cable is doomed.

  6. The digital networks (MeTV, Decades, COZITV, Heroes and Icons, Laff, GRIT, Bounce, GetTV, AntennaTV, Escape, BUZZR, and any I cannot think of offhand) are also growing, particularly with viewers that cannot afford or have no interest in cable/satellite, do not wish to subscribe to streaming services or live in areas where internet options are unaffordable or not advanced (I know someone living in a rural area where dial-up internet service remains the only option for internet access. Impractical for streaming) Some Warner Brothers shows have been featured on the likes of MeTV and Decades. I have also noticed that GRIT is now showing films (but no shows) from the Warner Brothers archive. We can only hope …

    1. getTV has been showing Hondo, A Man Called Shenandoah, and Nichols over the past 2 1/2 years, and all 3 were offered at Warner Archive Instant before getTV picked them up. And as you mention, MeTV has been airing Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip; the latter was streaming at WA Instant at one time.

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