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Netflix's US Catalog Has Shrunk by More Than 2,500 Titles in Less Than 2.5 Years
According to a report on AllFlicks, a website that lists and categorizes Netflix content, the streaming service's library for American subscribers has shrunk by a third since 2014. The report claims that in March 2014, the US Netflix library consisted of about 6,500 movies and 1,600 television shows. As of this month, the same library offers 4,330 movies and 1,200 TV shows. An article on Quartz explains the shrinkage: The reason is that securing international streaming rights to shows and movies is exceedingly difficult -- laws and regulations differ by country, as does the type of content that people around the world consume. Netflix hopes that its library in other countries will eventually rival its comprehensive selection in the US.
> According to a report on AllFlicks, a website that lists and categorizes Netflix content, the streaming service's library for American subscribers has shrunk by a third since 2014.
> Netflix hopes that its library in other countries will eventually rival its comprehensive selection in the US.
So they're going to equalize the catalog sizes by shrinking the American catalog to be more like it's international catalogs? Makes me scratch my head, but I'm not a MBA or a management consultant, so what do I know.
International will be as comprehensive as US content withers away...
The real explanation is simple, Netflix was not taken very seriously as a potential channel to displace traditional revenue channels (was seen as free money for little threat), and as Netflix proved it would displace the usual revenue channels, the content holders began being far more demanding as renewal time came around.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
The distributors of the film licenses have realized that streaming is pretty much their entire market these days. So they've learned that they should be asking for more money from them in order to stay afloat. Depending on the license agreement, Netflix will either pay a negotiated flat-rate to have unlimited streaming rights, a fee per view, or a combination of the two. But it's very rarely going to just be a fee per view. So when Netflix' license to a movie ends, they have to think long and hard before deciding to relicense it, if they are given the opportunity at all. Now that there's competition from Amazon, Hulu, and Google Play, the licensing company may very well have already promised the next time chunk to someone else.
I still pay for DVD subscription for anything that isn't streaming. And they are shrinking their deep catalog fast. My queue has almost as many unavailable titles as available titles now. They are dumping used discs at Dollar General or Big Lots fast.
It used to be that just about anything you could think of was available on disc, and then there was streaming with the more limited catalog. Now, DVD is less and less worth paying for. I am turning to buying a copy of a movie rather than having any way to rent for the more obscure titles.
In the end, "cutting the chord" is not going to save anybody any money, because instead of paying cable $99+ / month for shows and HBO, they're going to have to sign on to 7 services to get the same shows they want to watch, resulting in the same $99/month.
Not really. As long as there's no long term commitment to these services, people like me will just binge watch everything we want in a month, then cancel and move on to the next service. That is, until they start pulling dick moves like only keeping the 2 or 3 latest episodes, at which point they will get none of my money.
It's pretty clear that Netflix's vision in the long run is to essentially become a television network on its own. I expect that while the actual number of titles will fall, the number of first run series will rise.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
It's pretty clear that Netflix's vision in the long run is to essentially become a television network on its own. I expect that while the actual number of titles will fall, the number of first run series will rise.
I think that became the case when Netflix realized that they are completely at the mercy of the content holders and that they would eventually be displaced by the content holders themselves some day.
The only counterpoint I have to that is that judging by the way content holders have rolled out streaming thus far, that day is far off.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Netflix "still" has DVDs and Blu-Rays of everything.. So does RedBox.
Re-read what the original message in this thread said: "Netflix's deep catalog ended my piracy, since they made it so much easier..." -- sending little plastic-and-metal disks around isn't easier than piracy.
Re-read what I said: "...impromptu Friday-night movie nights..." -- sending little plastic-and-metal disks around isn't conducive to this kind of opportunistic moment.
It's not that the DVD/Bluray service is useless, just that it's qualitatively worse than the alternatives of legally streaming or illegally torrenting the same content for most people. And decimating their content catalog is going to push people to one of those two behaviors.
But more to the point: Netflix's stock took a 9% pounding when an independent analysis firm predicted that 2016Q1 subscriber numbers would be 13% lower than Netflix had forecast. I don't see how the next three quarters can be much better for them unless they get their content licensing shit back together. And at some point, a 9% quarter-over-quarter decline will make them a wholly-owned subsidiary of someone else. Or a bankruptcy liquidation.