Netflix’s US Catalog Has Shrunk by More Than 2,500 Titles in Less Than 2.5 Years | Hacker News Reader

Netflix’s US Catalog Has Shrunk by More Than 2,500 Titles in Less Than 2.5 Years

allflicks.net

4 pointsrealusername8 comments

This has been apparent as a Netflix subscriber and basically has sent me back into buying my videos rather than believing I'll be able to stream them. And oddly that works in the cable company's favor as their extortionate price becomes less than the aggregate price of all the streaming services which would be required to replicate their "catalog."

The most interesting model is the mixed own/stream model at Amazon. Amazon continues to have movies for purchase which it doesn't stream as part of Prime, and those movies are "permanent"[1] when you buy them so you can go back later and re-watch them. Not true for Netflix even with some of their obscure "B" titles.

I expect it will continue to get weird before it gets better.

[1] Well as permanent as anything Amazon does, which is to say they could revoke access at any time for any reason.

Netflix disc subscriptions are still a thing [1], I use it enough to definitely make it cheaper than buying and most months use it enough to make it cheaper than online rentals. Obviously it lacks instant gratification but it nicely augments streaming options. Sadly it has degraded somewhat, they stopped processing discs on Saturdays, many more studios issue "rental only" discs that lack the special features, and it's common for there to be a "blackout" period of a few months between when a disc is released for purchase and when it's available for rental.

I have almost no interest in buying movies or TV shows, there are very few I'll want to watch again and I won't know in advance which ones I will want to re-watch. Hell, even after seeing a movie I may not know if I'll want to re-watch it, even if I thought it was very good.

[1] http://dvd.netflix.com/

Eh, without knowing the quality of the titles that have been removed, it's impossible to say if this is good, bad, or neutral, nor is it possible to make any conclusions regarding the cause.

For all I know, they've just been culling the truly massive collection of low-budget garbage that's infected the service since its inception.

you can look at the quality of the titles they currently have to see it's mostly B-movies, odd-docs and a precious few 'A-level' of either. While they're dumping lots of cash into their own films, shows, etc... they certainly aren't looking to get any more 'big name' movies...

I don't know that that's true. For every piece of B-rated schlock that arrives, they're also bringing on AAA content. Is it every major new release? No. But it's not trivial.

And I should point out I'm speaking as a Canadian... which might mean my bar is a lot lower. :/

> I should point out I'm speaking as a Canadian... which might mean my bar is a lot lower.

How unpatriotic (grin). My experience has been that Canadian film is high quality. Less hollywood car chases and explosions. I think this is due to the funding from the national film board.

Ha ha! No, no, my point is that the selection on Canadian Netflix is but a pale shadow of it's American counterpart. :)

The selection on Netflix started out bad years ago and declined from there. I've started using VidAngel for almost all of my movie streaming lately. They've got a great selection of movies/shows including new releases (e.g., The Martian, The Big Short, The Good Dinosaur, etc.) that I can stream for $1 (or keep if I prefer). The filtering is a nice bonus (no more JarJar Binks). They even have a "Not on Netflix" section.

I realize that the above sounds like an advertisement. It's not meant to, I truly use it daily.

http://www.vidangel.com (naked link) or https://www.vidangel.com?vip=c5smk9fr71 (referral link)

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