Netflix Will Keep ‘Friends’ Through Next Year in a $100 Million Agreement

Are Netflix and “Friends” on a break?

The answer is no — for now. Reruns of Joey’s thespian trials, Chandler’s hapless sarcasm, Monica’s compulsive cleanliness, Phoebe’s feline riffs and the seemingly permanent courtship of Ross and Rachel will be available to watch on Netflix for at least another year, the streaming service has announced.

But it will come at a steep price: The company will pay around $100 million to continue licensing the program from its owner, WarnerMedia, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the deal.

That’s a significant jump from the $30 million a year that Netflix had paid previously to stream the show. But the new amount reflects the thirst for content in the streaming age. Online viewing is the future of entertainment, and the industry’s biggest players — including WarnerMedia’s parent, AT&T; the Walt Disney Company; Comcast’s NBCUniversal; Viacom; CBS; and Discovery — are retooling their streaming operations to take on services like Netflix and Amazon.

WarnerMedia and Netflix declined to comment.

For Netflix, paying big money for hit content is necessary to expanding its customer base, now 57 million in the United States and 130 million worldwide.

Questions about the show’s future on the service began over the weekend when customers spotted a notice on Netflix’s “Friends” page that read, “Availability Until 1/1/19.” Some of the show’s fans turned apoplectic. “The only reason I have an account with Netflix is to rewatch Friends,” Hayley Kiyoko posted on Twitter. “Why @netflix are you hurting us.”

The Netflix account responded: “I would never hurt you, Hayley.”

At an investor conference in New York on Monday, Ted Sarandos, head of Netflix’s content division, said the show’s departure “is a rumor.”