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posted by
cmn32480
on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:58AM
from the optimus-prime-is-not-happy dept.
from the optimus-prime-is-not-happy dept.
Thousands of movies will be removed from Netflix in the US after the streaming service decided not to renew a deal with distributor Epix.
Removed titles will include the Hunger Games and Transformers movies.
Netflix, which has more than 60 million subscribers worldwide, said it wanted to focus on exclusive content.
...
Explaining the move to subscribers, Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos wrote: "While many of these movies are popular, they are also widely available on cable and other subscription platforms at the same time as they are on Netflix and subject to the same drawn out licensing periods."
Will this change in their library make you more or less likely to subscribe, or continue to subscribe?
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Netflix Takes Gamble With Epix Film Cull in U.S.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @05:14AM
So, they want to be another HBO. They let the success of a series or two go to their heads and now they're moving away from what made them successful.
Let the slide to mediocrity begin.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by slinches on Wednesday September 02 2015, @05:31AM
I don't think they want to be just another TV channel. I'm betting that the content rights owners are trying to jack up their contract rates now that they're expiring and some of Netflix's competitors are more willing to pay a premium for content to help improve their position in the market.
Maybe eventually we'll realize how insane it is for everyone to keep paying over and over for the same content and finally reform copyright. I mean how many of those movies would be in the public domain if we had kept the old 14+14yr terms? Then we could have a robust streaming market competing on cost and quality of the service rather than who can wrangle the most favorable contracts with the media companies.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Francis on Wednesday September 02 2015, @03:06PM
Begins? This has been going on for years. I remember when they raised their rates substantially just prior to them losing a bunch of content. The online catalog is still not very good and if it gets much worse, I'm not sure I'm going to even bother giving them money.
They no longer allow you to buffer out all or most of an episode, so on days where the internet sucks here, I can be waiting through a half dozen buffers on a 50 minute show.
The insulting thing is that they raised rates in order to fund their expansion into other countries, but I get to pay more money, but there's less and less content being provided. I'm not really sure how much longer I'm going to be paying, if the content continues to dwindle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:31PM
What do you mean? They picked up a whole bunch of "History" Channel shows. You know the ones that aren't very good and even then aren't complete. Hell they can't even get How It's Made or Modern Marvels. And their movie selection? Try finding a scifi that wasn't part of the Epix package you want to watch. Sci-fi in general is garbage online. Anime on the other hand people seem to have in spades. The only sad part is that selection on cable is less and is getting worse. FFS having a Plex server is becoming a requirement.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday September 02 2015, @04:42PM
I probably should have been more clear. It's mostly things that I'm likely to want to watch. I seem to have to work harder and harder to find things that I'm interested in watching. Even just watching things that I've already watched is getting rather hard.
I'll probably start keeping a bit of a log of shows that I look for and can't find versus can find. But, I'm not looking for shows that are particularly obscure in most cases. They weren't the most popular things during their respective time, but they weren't obscure either. Things that they really ought to have, but aren't necessarily too expensive to license either.
But, it does seem to be getting worse as time goes by and when Netflix refuses to sign an extension it just makes matters worse.
OTOH, the industry is at risk of killing the goose with the golden eggs as I'm not going to be buying large numbers of DVDs because I can't find what I want on Netflix. I'll just do without. There's plenty of cool content online that doesn't come from the MAFIAA and I probably shouldn't be spending any time watching TV anyways.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 02 2015, @11:47PM
I written this before on SN, but I too have totally mined out Netflix's DVD and streaming selection. More and more I watch content on Instructables and YouTube. The more I watch there, the more inspired I feel to undertake my own projects and as I do, the happier I feel generally. For example, I've taken up brass etching and augmented my survival skills with different forms of snare building, etc. Maybe other people will experience this progression, too, and the DIY movement will swell with new practitioners.
Washington DC delenda est.