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Netflix's Original Content Library Is Growing By 185% Each Year (cordcutting.com)
An anonymous reader writes: From Q1 of 2012 to Q1 of 2016, Netflix has added an incredible 111 original series and films. The numbers translate to an average quarterly growth rate of 34.22% and an average annual growth rate of 185.41%. And there is reason to believe that future growth rates could be even higher -- with competition coming from all sides, Netflix is likely to keep pushing more and more cash into original content. Those wondering why Netflix has grown increasingly interested in owning the shows it airs, you have to realize that not long ago the streaming company was struggling to snap any good TV show from cable channels. The New York Times' profile of House of Cards' Beau Willimon, from 2014, sheds more light into this : Around three years ago, Netflix realized it had a problem: It was paying large sums to license other people's content -- TV shows and movies produced by other companies -- in order to then show them to you, the Netflix subscriber, at home. This initially proved successful, but there were two troubling aspects to this model: 1) It left Netflix very vulnerable to competition, since the shows and movies it licensed could, theoretically, be licensed by anyone willing to outbid them, and 2) the most popular TV shows, episodic dramas like "CSI" and sitcoms like "The Big Bang Theory," were already being sold for huge deals into syndication at basic cable channels like TBS and USA. What was left to Netflix were the kind of serialized shows that don't typically play well in syndication, like "Lost" and "Breaking Bad," which have complicated story arcs that compel a viewer to watch all the episodes in order. Traditionally, while these kinds of serialized shows could be big hits in their initial broadcast runs, they proved tough sells to aftermarkets, precisely because of the demands they placed on the audience.
https://www.allflicks.net/netflixs-us-catalog-has-shrunk-by-more-than-2500-titles-in-less-than-2-5-years/
1) It left Netflix very vulnerable to competition, since the shows and movies it licensed could, theoretically, be licensed by anyone willing to outbid them
This is the part that I don't understand. Why can't the right-holders charge a flat-fee for streaming rights and let more than one entity stream them? Why must the streaming rights be held by one and only one entity with the deepest pockets? The major content players should have all of the content that they're willing to pay for. Streaming isn't like television, where two channels in the same market can't both have broadcast rights to show the same program.
To draw an analogy, I'd love to see streaming services be set up like video game consoles: the libraries are mostly the same, but whichever one has the exclusives you want is the one that you'll use.
I'm glad Netflix didn't waste their money on stateless television series that can be watched in any episode order.
I want other networks to make the investments in content, get burned, and for Netflix to pick up the least crispy remains a few years later. New Netflix shows like House of Cards (which began to suck after just two seasons) just aren't needed: compared to what I do watch on Netflix its original content is only a small fraction.
They licensed the studios' content to stream, and once those studios got wise to the fact that hey, people are actually canceling their cable TV subscriptions in favor of this, killed their deals during renewal. Now Netflix is using the money they made streaming famous content for cheap to fund new original series to keep people watching.
I call this the AMC model.
They will be just another network at this rate in a few years and we will be back where we were except with one MORE network to pay for
the same thing that makes those shows bad in syndication makes them great for Netflix binge watching!
-nb
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
If Netflix is going to concentrate on its own content, what's the real difference between Netflix and any random cable channel that provides on-demand viewing?
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Even in the age of DVRs and streaming I can't be bothered with serialized shows. I'm pretty sure that the serialization of CSI is what killed the show. Early on it was like watching Dragnet; a criminal show with some steady characters with a bit of personality but no so much that you cared about their personal lives. Then it turned more and more into incorporating their personal lives and while the show still mainly dwelled on an episodic case you had to be dragged into this personal drama story arc that seemingly took an entire season or two to resolve. It got really boring when the last 15 minutes of every show ended up being Catherine Willows staring off into the sunset while some neo-hippy/alternatrend acoustic ballad droned on as she pondered the spirit of her dead father or what drug dealer her daughter was buying meth from and how she earned the money to buy it.
Not to mention that Lady Heather was the lamest attempts to "sex up" a TV show in the history of the medium.
Speaking for myself, I came to Netflix for the back-catalog movies and TV shows. Their original shows are just icing on the cake. But lately Netflix seems to think that they can be just another TV network like HBO, and have neglected what made most of their customers subscribe to their service in the first place.
As their back-catalog shrinks, so do the chances I'll renew my subscription each month. If I wanted to subscribe to HBO, I would just go subscribe to HBO.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
House of Cards is too dark.
Anyway, why can't I watch Doctor Who, any of the Indiana Jones, Star Wars, AI, ...well, everything by Lucas or Speilberg on NetFlix? The Star Treks are hit or miss and the James Bond movies are like ghosts - they appear and disappear.....
They have some good documentaries but everything else is just shit. And as far as the British TV is concerned, PBS' streaming channel is better - Mercy Street is awesome! I'm looking into dropping Netflix and just doing the Amazon a la cart and maybe AcornTV - I'd get what I want and it'd be cheaper to boot.
How about demand / customer base?
If you have two coconuts and three buyers you have a market.
If you have three coconuts and two buyers you don't have a market.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I subscribed to Netflix years ago and watched some things here and there. But I stopped subscribing when they upped the prices back then. I did it because their selection of movies is horrible. It's mainly just TV shows. Want to watch a movie from a couple of years ago? Most likely, "nope, sorry."
Netflix is just not worth any money to me until the original series came out. I'm a Marvel fan so the DareDevil (season 1 and 2) and Jessica Jones stuff has been great. I'd pay for 1 month just to binge watch those shows/seasons and then cancel.
So in summary: yes, they definitely need a better catalog of movies to stream. /also nice that a friend lets me use her Netflix account...
Applicable only in US Territories otherwise you get diddly squat and a whole load of VPN blocks and IP Bans.
I like the original content push - it seems NetFlix is more willing to be original and take some chances rather than create yet another "CSI" or "Law and Order" or just some stupid hospital based soap opera. Not all the original content is great but it's mostly pretty solid with some standouts. I hope they continue to embrace original content. The back catalog stuff is sometimes interesting but mostly stuff I've already seen, it's a dead end.
I've really been getting into international shows. "The Almighty Johnsons", "Wentworth", "Happy Valley" are all excellent.
I cam mostly for the original shows like Dare Devil, House of Cards and Jessica Jones. The loss of some back-catalogue stuff is quite annoying though, especially when you are part way though watching (happened to me with Ashes to Ashes).
As such I tend to subscribe for a month or two at a time now, between releases of original series. If they improved the back catalogue I'd just keep the subscription going.
As an aside, Netflix does some good non-English original series too. If you don't mind subtitles or speak another language, they are worth checking out.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I don't watch their original content.
I watch the shows from other networks that I hadn't seen yet or want to watch again.
Slowly but surely I will need to re-evaluate my needs and jump ship because they might have so much shit content that the good content will not be there anymore.
They have no idea how to make good shows, sad but true.
as I'm about to pull the plug on Netflix for blocking VPS/DNS services. I do watch them quite a bit from Canada but I don't really need them. Even the wife who could care less about tech stuff was like what? Off with their heads.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Either that is because of a change in focus of Netflix or because the content providers are getting more difficult/greedier? Without an official comment from Netflix it is hard to know, but any change of focus of Netflix is probably triggered by the latter?
The one reason I would give for someone pirating: is that you can't be sure where to find the content or find the content in 1 year and at a reasonable cost. I appreciate content owners need to stay profitable, but there needs to be some sort of balance?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I disagree. I joined Netflix for the same reason you did, and grew concerned as copyright holders became intent on denying Netflix quality content. When they started producing their own content, I thought, "That's smart. Even if you just come up with a couple shows, it could spur interest."
After a couple years of new Netflix content, they produce a couple of my favorite shows. I definitely do not want them to stop. What's more, I do subscribe to HBO, and it's largely so that I can view their original programming. I also subscribe to Hulu. None of these has anything resembling a complete catalog, but putting them all together, I get to watch most of what I'd want to watch.
I think this is the right move forward-- not a good endpoint, but a good "next logical step". Streaming services with limited catalogs and great original programming will continue to hammer away at traditional TV, and you'll see more and more cord-cutters. I don't know how long it will take, but eventually the situation will become dire enough for traditional networks that they'll have to make their properties available on streaming services to make any money off of them. It'll be the Spotifycation of TV.
Give that a few years, and you'll see some method arise where you can pay a single subscription and get everything you want-- a complete back-catalog plus HBO/Netflix/Hulu originals. Now, that might be by some arrangement where these major providers agree on some common platform, or it may just be licensing deals (e.g. "Netflix pays HBO to get all their programming on a 1-year delay."). But that's the endpoint we want, and I still think it's going to happen.
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But Netflix appears to be slowly, drip by drip, screwing its customers of the DVD service.
The "next day" mail service has now been turned into two-day deliveries.
It also seems as if the turnaround at the distribution center once a disc is received is now next day, instead of same day.
I subscribe to the two discs at home level of service. I appear to be receiving about half the number of discs per month as I used to.
It looks as if Netflix is actively trying to chase customers away by reducing the amount of streaming content and putting large latencies into the distribution of their DVD service.
It looks like Netflix's US business has become too expensive, and Netflix is now looking to international markets for the profits as it withdraws from the US markets.
Sorry as this is off the main topic, but how did they come up with "The numbers translate to an average quarterly growth rate of 34.22% and an average annual growth rate of 185.41%"? I would have assumed that averaging growth over time would be done logarithmically. 1.3422^4 is not 2.8541. Pedantic I know, but maths should be correct on a nerd site.
Agreed. Their back catalog of movies can be fairly tough to stomach. But I think that's because they're getting horribly squeezed b the content providers -- so Netflix has had to produce original series to keep the subscriber base, and I'm guessing that next time those catalogs roll around for licensing, that Netflix will be much more in the driver's seat. Also, Netflix isn't renewing any deals where they don't get licenses to stream it in all countries it services at once, which I think is a smart move. But that necessarily shrinks their catalog since the content providers are used to Balkanizing their distribution as much as possible and dislike the universal deals. That shrinks US content quite a bit, but I'm ok with it -- it's the right call for Netflix.
Seen - 0%.
Maybe this will matter in 5 yrs once I've caught up on Lost, Anime and SG-SG1 episodes.
Care to make any specific recommendations? We watch pretty much everything with subtitles on because we speak 4 different languages in our household and watch even more on film.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
The next step for Netflix may be to produce major motion pictures, release in theaters then exclusively on NF.
I also wonder when they make serious moves into live TV and sports. Theoretically they could make that a different service but use the existing infrastructure.
It likely has more to do with operation cost effectiveness than intentionally providing less service to push people to streaming , but I think its clear that NF will celebrate the day it can rid itself of the hard media portion of its business and concentrate solely on streaming.
Is NF original content available on disk? I never even thought about that.
Son, turn off the TV and get a life.
I can; here's a few I have (or still am) really enjoying:
:)
Occupied (Norwegian & a little English and Russian - takes place slightly in future)
Heavy Water War (Norwegian and English - takes place in WWII)
Foyle's War (Ok, pretty much all English, but UK not US, also WWII)
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (also English, takes place in Australia in the 20's)
I only saw 1 episode & wasn't really my thing, but Netflix Original series Atelier is in Japanese.
There are tonnes of good British shows on Netflix, I have been binging them lately. Yes, I realize the request was for non-English, but I read that to be non-American, so I mention them anyway. If I am wrong, you still have 2 good suggestions and a third if Japanese underwear is your bag
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
I get what you are saying but I think there is a lot of evidence that this new business is taking over the old one. I don't think they are at too much risk of losing customers over it. People love the new content and I suspect it is even driving some new signups by people who want to watch House of Cards or Orange is the New Black.
I'm also curious what the contraction in their catalog is caused by, are they really taking on less A list shows or are they not bringing in as many C list made for TV movies. If its the latter I think they can get away with it (although those movies make for cheep filler, they may not need as much filler).
If they really do stop carrying syndicated shows that could cause an opening for another provider to come in (amazon perhaps) but that doesn't mean that Netflix can't compete on oringinal content with someone like HBO and I suspect they will continue to do that.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
The Last Days was a really cool and original scifi/apocalypse move. I really enjoyed it.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
Huh. Anecdotally, I'm getting the same service with DVDs that I always have. I generally assume that if I put it in the mail Tuesday, they get it Wednesday, and get me the new disk Thursday. That seems reasonable to me.
I dropped from the 3 disc service back to 2 because I watch a lot more stuff on streaming, but there's a lot of stuff that's only available on disks. I generally have one disk on hand and another in the mail. (Actually, I often end up holding things for a few days, since I watch less stuff than I used to. Trying to get a life.)
So I'm pretty happy with the service. It's the only content I'm paying for; it provides as much as I need for the time I have to spend watching TV.
If Netflix wants more original content, they just need to choose to spend more money on original content.
If Netflix wants to license more content, there's no no way to force rights-holders to take their money no matter how much they wave around.
7 Deadly Sins is an awesome shonen anime, if you're into that sort of thing.
Going international also plays into it, probably. Netflix has a hard time licensing stuff to watch outside of the US because you need a separate license for each country. With a solid log of Netflix-exclusives, then wherever they launch they automatically have a library without having to worry about the whims of licensing.
Don't forget: https://xkcd.com/1102
I kind of wish Netflix would've done better in delivering us a quality presidential candidate. Hillary and Trump both have major flaws. If we could get President Underwood, that would be the ticket.
I'm also curious what the contraction in their catalog is caused by, are they really taking on less A list shows or are they not bringing in as many C list made for TV movies. If its the latter I think they can get away with it (although those movies make for cheep filler, they may not need as much filler).
Since I watch a lot of Christian content (which is relatively obscure and not mainstream and definitely usually qualifies as C list quality), I can tell you that niche content has exploded and "blockbuster" movies, especially those that can be found almost everywhere, aren't on there anymore. There's a heavier emphasis on TV shows and less on movies.
Netflix knows what they are doing. I can always find something interesting to watch on there. I don't need the blockbusters, because I probably already saw them in the theater or I can buy the DVD/Blu-Ray. But they have stuff for me to watch that I really like that I can't find anywhere else. The bigger problem for me is not that I can't find anything to watch, but that I don't have time to watch it all.
This is the exact opposite problem with cable where I pay 10× as much and even with a DVR, never have anything to watch.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
I went from 3 discs down to one plus streaming... because generally anything I want that they have on DVD I can get from Amazon for $3-6, and I don't have to deal with (potentially scratched) DVDs. I do keep one DVD service, for some reason, though. I rarely even use it.
Their original shows are just icing on the cake. But lately Netflix seems to think that they can be just another TV network like HBO, and have neglected what made most of their customers subscribe to their service in the first place.
What are you talking about, their DVD and Blu-Ray selection is still great!
Their streaming options always, always sucked. But that's not really their fault -- with the current set of laws in the US, you can't run a good online streaming service. You just can't.
You read correctly. Thanks.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
Well, I like j-drama, but it's not for everyone. I think you just have to try a few shows.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Shipping DVD's all over the place, and checking them in (and verifying the customer hasn't intentionally damaged it) has to be a logistically fun - I'm sure its not cheap - maybe even only breaks even because the delivery method is subsidized (via usps).
Netflix started blocking me, but only when I watched it using a Roku box; watching Netflix on either my laptop or phone or tablet worked just fine.
Perusing its website about their blocking policies, they suggested checking the reputation of my IP address. Indeed, the only thing that I found about it was that it was correctly listed as a Tor node. However, I run a Tor relay node, not an exit node. Yet, I suspect that that's why Netflix figured that it should block my Roku box, since it does not support IPv6 as my other devices. So, it didn't matter that my traffic was not suspicious, just a stupid database of suspicious addresses.
Calling customer support was a waste of time, since it had no interest in me as a customer as much as in maniacally and preemptively defending the MPAA.
Needless to say, I am a customer no more and, you know what? I don't miss Netflix at all. Ever since cutting the cable, I scaled down my video watching quite a bit. Mostly weaned of TV, it was easy to let go of Netflix when I pondered the choice of shutting down the Tor relay or canceling my subscription.
Eff you very much, Netflix.
I hesitated to reply to myself (especially when I could have been wrong), but I also really liked "River" (also British) - in fact that was what got me started (with this list, anyway, I like a lot of BBC shows). I really liked Stellan Skarsgård (Swedish - I also liked Nicola Walker, had seen her previously in Spooks [renamed MI-5 for American audiences, but I watched it before Netflix carried MI-5]) so I searched him & found King of Devil's Island (Norwegian) & liked it well enough, the 'More like this' feature lead me to The Heavy Water War & then Netflix started making good recommendations.
It seems people that complain about Netflix's library are only interested in US shows/movies - I can always find something new and interesting to watch.
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
They're getting rid of all the good shows, and producing teeny bopper crap. It's like ABC..err, i mean Disney bought out netflix.
Same here, it takes longer to get a replacement disk than it once did. I suspect they consolidated the servicing centers which results in a longer shipping time. But I would drop streaming before I dropped DVDs by mail - their DVD by mail catalogue is amazing and gives us the opportunity to watch new releases and classics that are not available on streaming. There are lots of tv shows on DVD as well.
The next step for Netflix may be to produce major motion pictures, release in theaters then exclusively on NF.
That's sort of already happened.
Is this true?
Orange is the new Black, House of cards, and a few others are their "original series".
Listing anime series and other foreign TV series that Netflix licensed and then stamped their name on, isn't "original series". Finding a comedian who is doing a show already and just paying to tape them once is not "original series". Heck that's is not even "series".
Am I wrong or are they actually fully producing and writing all those thing now? No? are they just shows you may have already seen in another country but now have "Netflix Original!" at the top when you select them?
Netflix have been scraping world markets for their cheapest content for years now. New fresh American content is few and far between due to greedy studios.
That problem still exists outside the USA: US content is licensed on a per show, per country arrangement: A lawyer-driven mechanism for region-locking, which is meant to be illegal in several countries. The current model is lassez-faire capitalism doing what it was designed to do: Screw the consumer as much as possible.
It's telling that the push to 'standardize' copyright laws, does nothing of the sort. Countries that can reach international consensus, on oil pricing, aviation, banking and finance, pharmaceutical manufacturing, extradition treaties and economic sanctions, are unable to create a standardized market for the most exported asset in the world today: IP licenses.
With Netflix investing more than $1 billion in original content in 2015, I'd hope it grows substantially.
The Detectorists. You will not be sorry.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
...and have neglected what made most of their customers subscribe to their service in the first place.
They've been ignoring their DVD rental via mail?
It is true that a year ago, Netflix slowed everything down and I looked at dropping their DVD service, since 50% slower wasn't what I'd signed up for.
After about 2 months, the speed got back to normal again. I put discs into the mailbox at 5pm and they ship replacements the following day - which I get the following day. That's 2 discs weekly for me, per plan-disc. We're on the 3-disc-at-a-time plan, but plan to drop that to 2-discs soon since we've worked through over 300 old-movies in the last 18months and there just isn't much to be seen anymore.
So - here - we aren't having delivery issues, but what drives me crazy is a 6 disc season of TV with Disc-1 missing. THAT is next to useless. I'm tempted to give them some old TV DVDs that I purchased to avoid the issue for other clients, but the retail DVDs aren't licensed for rental use. ;(
Thanks, it's now in my queue :-)
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
If the quarterly growth rate is 34.22% then the yearly is 224.54%. If the yearly is 185.41% then the quarterly is 29.97%.
I'm also curious what the contraction in their catalog is caused by, are they really taking on less A list shows or are they not bringing in as many C list made for TV movies.
The contraction is due to a fundamental disagreement about pricing between Netflix and the content companies. Netflix offers a "one size fits all, unlimited streaming for a fixed price per month" model that the content companies don't like. They want titles to be pay-per-view, they want to charge more for different titles, and charge more for high-def versus low-def, things Netflix says degrades the viewer experience (and they're not wrong). So the content companies, who say that customers should be paying far more than Netflix charges for the content they watch, charge exorbitant fees when these streaming deals come up for negotiation, if they're willing to allow Netflix to stream at all.
Unlike with DVDs and Blu-Rays, where you buy one and you keep it forever, you, me, and Netflix can lose the right to see anything through streaming at any time. It's the return of the "bad old days" when Disney would pull back a title and put it back into "The Disney Vault," so they could make a big event of releasing the movie from The Vault a few years later. It's an exploitation of copyright, but the pendulum of power has swung way over to the side of the content companies.
At least 50% of the time we go looking on Netflix for a certain non-obscure movie, it's not there. But what IS there is a surfeit of "straight to video" quality stuff that I'm sure appeals to them for the low licensing cost, it lets them say we have N thousand movies, few of which are what one wants.
https://www.allflicks.net/netflixs-us-catalog-has-shrunk-by-more-than-2500-titles-in-less-than-2-5-years/
This. Netflix can grow their original content library by 500% annually and it's just going to remind me I'm only seeing what Netflix wants me to see, that I can't discuss my shows with non-Netflix subscribers, and so on. Exclusive original content is a terrible development in streaming.