Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies From IMDB's Top 250 List (streamingobserver.com)

According to Streaming Observer News, the quality and quantity of Netflix's movie library has declined over the last two years when cross-referenced with IMDB's Top 250 movies list. From the report: Well, it's a pretty common fact at this point that Netflix's library is shrinking. Of course, what Netflix needs to do as it shrinks its licensed movie library is make sure that movies it does have are good ones. But according to our analysis, it's going backwards, unfortunately. A while back we noticed a post from this Reddit member who, two years ago, cross-referenced the IMDB (Internet Movie Database) top 250 movies list with Netflix's movie library to find out how many of the top movies Netflix carried. When u/clayton_frisbie posted his list on Reddit, Netflix had 49 of the Top 250 movies on the IMDB list. That's just under 20 percent, which isn't terrible. But we wondered how that number has held up over the last two years in the face of a quickly shrinking library. So we reran the analysis. How many of the top 250 movies does Netflix now have? As of September 2016, that number has dropped to 31, or about 12 percent. [You can view the list via Streaming Observer News.]

Comments

Not Netflix's fault

[Daemonik]

People blame Netflix for this like it's something they want, which is untrue.

Fact of the matter is that the studios that own the rights to these films won't sign with Netflix because it competes with the cable companies that own them both for on demand streaming and cable channels, as well as studio owned fronts like Hulu.

This is what happens when content providers consolidate with the content delivery companies. Collusion, false monopolies and fixed markets.

It's time for the government to step in and break up the cable/studio/isp's into their separate pieces again.

Re:Not Netflix's fault

[H3lldr0p]

In addition to the breakup, I'd like to see movies and television put under a compulsory licensing scheme after, say five years. Set up a similar system to how music royalties get collected and paid out. This way companies like YouTube and Netflix can stop worry about this and follow where the demand takes them. The five year buffer doesn't stop studios from cutting deals to get shows and movies out to platforms of choice earlier and gives them time to sell the physical media.

Re:Not Netflix's fault

[SvnLyrBrto]

Those studios are shooting themselves in the foot though. Who wants to have to deal with multiple accounts and hunt down the show they want to watch across Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Go/Now, CBS whatever, Vudu, Crackle, FXnow, and so and so on and so on? For many, Netflix is the first and only stop, and if what they want to watch isn't there, they wont scour the ends of the internet for it. They'll goto the one place they know it will be available: The Pirate Bay.

Re:Not Netflix's fault

[lucm]

Government isn't the answer to nearly 99% of the questions it tries to answer..

True. That's why we badly need someone who could make America great again.

Re:Not Netflix's fault

[Daemonik]

The problem that small limited government people like you seem to never understand though is that we need the government to balance out the already overpowered corporate system. As it is corporations still have too much power but remove government as a counter and we'd be nothing more than barcoded slaves living a dystopia.

We where founded with the principle of LIMITED government, with LIMITED powers that left us free in as many ways as possible.

Also stop living in the past. The US was also founded on the principle's that only land owners got to vote and slaves counted as 3/5ths of a person. Things change.

dvd.netflix.com

[Kludge]

I still have not subscribed to the streaming part of netflix.
I still get the dvds.

I don't use Netflix for movies much anymore

[JMZero]

I'd much rather Netflix spends their money on TV shows (especially originals) than chasing expensive, popular movies. If I feel I need to watch The Dark Knight again (and I don't expect to) I'll find a way. No - I stay subscribed to them for TV: Stranger Things and House of Cards and Better Call Saul.

Well, that and my kids have been into Digimon lately.

Re:That is not Netflix's plan

[AmiMoJo]

The original series are the reason I subscribe, the other stuff is just an added bonus.

Re:There is an old saying in business

[tripleevenfall]

Or there is not a difficulty in turning a profit without paying the license costs, so they don't pay them.

Re:That is not Netflix's plan

[Moheeheeko]

Agreed. The quality of the original shows they make is well in the top 3 for networks.

It's one foot or the other

[H3lldr0p]

I'll give the studios some credit in this. It would appear they looked at what happened with music and book publishers and decided they didn't want any one company lording over them and being able to cut deals like Amazon and Apple did. For them, it's a choice of either shooting their left foot and let Netflix have what they want at whatever price they can get or shoot their right foot by forcing people to have more than one account.

Only time will show which one they shot.

Re:There is an old saying in business

[PRMan]

Or maybe Netflix's algorithms show that we've all seen these movies already and don't watch them again. I mean, Amelie and Inception were interesting, but I would never watch them again.

Re:There is an old saying in business

[cayenne8]

For most newer movies or deeper movies...I still have my Netflix DVD/BluRay subscription...and you have a wider choice of titles there....

Re:There is an old saying in business

[alphatel]

There's also the fact that IMDB's top 250 simply ain't what it used to be. I mean seriously... Deadpool? Zootopia?

Correction to article & summary

[MobyDisk]

Well, it's a pretty common fact at this point that Netflix's *streaming* library is shrinking.

ThePirateBay has all of them

[PeeAitchPee]

Just torrent from the green and pink skulls and you can be pretty sure you're not ending up with malware.

Re:ThePirateBay has all of them

[Kohlrabi82]

Yeah, it's not only that Piratebay and friends obviously offer the bigger catalogue of content. It's also that you get a DRM-free version you can play anywhere, anytime without being online.

Do sites like Netflix really expect to be paid for worse service? I'd still be willing to pay for a service (monthly, or per-content) if it allowed the ease of use and freedom of pirating sites. Not that I really use those, I essentially stopped watching TV shows and movies, except for one or two shows hosted via Amazon Prime, Netflix wasn't at all worth it because I only was interested in one or two shows, but since I don't binge-watch, finishing one might take months, which makes this service much more expensive than a box set of Blurays.

But sadly Blurays are shit and insulting. I have to sit through minutes of shitty menus and anti-piracy shit, even though I paid €15 for a movie. I cannot play Bluray on my PC without buying some software for playback, like the now-defunct AnyDVD, or MakeMKV. I certainly won't buy a shitty special player software, which locks me in even further.

Streaming sites are shit. Ever changing catalogues, small amount of content and the fact that sometimes they only offer half the seasons of a TV show (Amazon, I'm looking at you). Add to that that I am forced to be online. So it is unusable on business trips on the plane or in hotels with bad WiFi, a situation where I'm more likely to just watch a movie or show than at home. On top we have DRM playback software, which forces me to use Chrome.

Offer me a way to get the content onto my PC DRM-free, without jumping through hoops, and we might have a deal.

Re:There is an old saying in business

[KingMotley]

I agree. There is no way deadpool should be at 234. It is easily a top 50.

Re:That is not Netflix's plan

[lucm]

I hope you'lll find something nice to do with that $8/month you're going to save once your wife is done watching 17 seasons of Midsomer Murders. Maybe treat yourself to a nice latte and cupcake?

Re:There is an old saying in business

[michelcolman]

So, I want to see a particular movie tonight, let's see, it's not on Netflix... iTunes will only sell it but not rent it... what other services are there... ah, found it, Bittorrent.

Why does the MPAA keep trying so hard to push us into piracy? Jeez, I actually switched from being a pirate to wanting to rent movies fair and square, and then I get all this "not available in your area" bullshit. OK, you got your chance, bye!