14 DAY TRIAL // One of Netflix's biggest problems, one that it’s working hard on fixing, is content availability. For a while, back when the right people didn't take Netflix seriously, the company was able to get movies and TV shows for streaming for a relatively small price.
But as studios, TV channels, and everyone in between started to fear Netflix, the prices went up.
So much so that it became too expensive for Netflix to acquire many of them. In fact, it's cheaper, or rather more profitable, for it to produce original content rather than license it.
Original content like House of Cards may have softened the blow, but that doesn't mean users take losing access to some of their favorite shows or movies lightly.
As of May 1, hundreds of classic titles from Warner Bros., who owns the rights to movies from the likes of MGM and United Artists, will no longer be available on Netflix. Coincidentally, Warner Archive Instant was launched earlier this month.
But Warner told Slate the two moves are unrelated. Netflix said it sometimes doesn't relicense movies that aren't all that popular.
It also says that many of the movies that aren't available as of today were part of the Epix deal, which wasn't renewed a couple of years back.
So, as far as Netflix is concerned, this is no big deal. But hundreds of titles will be removed from the catalog – close to 2,000 movies – and, no matter how unpopular they were, the loss has to hurt.
Netflix isn't doing too badly, but the competition is strong. Having thousands of movies less than a competitor doesn't look good.
That said, Netflix is boasting that it's adding 500 new titles to the lineup on May 1, so there will be plenty to keep you interested if you miss any of the old titles.