Netflix Campaign
I know it’s been a little quiet around here lately. I want to thank the folks who’ve been #FreeBabylon5 Ambassadors at conventions over the past months. Everything that helps keep Babylon 5 in the minds of people is great!
What’s the State of the Campaign, a few people have asked me?
Well, as you’ve seen, it’s quieted down but by no means are we giving up! The way I see it, the #FreeBabylon5 campaign has two goals: To get the original TV show available in reruns on network or streaming, AND to keep Babylon 5 current in people’s thoughts. Convention presence, the Pluto naming campaign, polls on IMDb, all of these and more help.
The good news is that at cons and online, pretty much every genre fan I (and others) run into, know about the show and express interest if they haven’t seen it before.
The not-so-good news is that Warner Bros. has succeeded in completely ignoring our efforts. We’ve even heard (second-hand, granted) that when a company approached them to license audio dramas, WB made it clear that the license isn’t available at this time.
So now what? Do we just give up? No, absolutely not! We’d have to turn in our Fan Badges if we did that!
One wonderful result of the #FreeBabylon5 campaign is that the show is in reruns outside of the US in a few places. That seems to mean that the WB offices in other countries are willing to make Babylon 5 available even if the ‘home office’ in the States isn’t. Which brings us to the next push:
The SENSE8 Connection
Many fans are aware that SENSE8, the new Netflix show by J. Michael Straczynski and the Wachowskis will premiere worldwide on Netflix this coming Friday, June 5. Many of you have said that Netflix is the perfect home for Babylon 5 streaming. It seems that now might just be the perfect time to let Netflix know that we want to see more JMS shows streaming.
In our favor is that Babylon 5 IS available (at least here in the States) via Netflix’ DVD service and it WAS available for streaming a while back. And anybody who already has Netflix knows that they love suggesting content to the membership.
Contact Netflix!
So my suggestion is that all of us, all over the world, contact the Netflix in your area via Twitter and ask for it! If Warner’s won’t listen to us, maybe they’ll listen to the big guns at Netflix? It’s worth a try!
Now, 140 characters isn’t much but it’s enough. Here’s what I’m going to be sending:
@netflix #SENSE8 comes out June 5 so interest will increase in J. Michael Straczynski shows. Please make BABYLON 5 available for streaming.