You may have seen the cries of Netflix “armaggedon” across the web the last few days, as the service has let its deal with Viacom expire as well as lost rights on a ton of classic WB movies (now available on their Warner Archive service). Up to 2000 titles are departing the service today (you can find the list here), including classic films, Nickelodeon shows, and MTV content. Frankly, there’s not a ton of it that is likely to be missed, and much of this content can be found on other services- the lack of exclusivity likely a big reason why Netflix let it lapse. This also allows Netflix to negotiate individual deals for shows or packaged content at different rates, so you may see some of the more important titles return at some point.
Still, the departure of some great films and tons of TV certainly doesn’t help the service, so they’ve added several hundred titles today to ameliorate the loss. You can go check those out now- I spotted films like Into The Wild and M:I2 that certainly weren’t available before today. Apparently some classics like Pulp Fiction, Dirty Dancing, and Chinatown are ready to stream, so it’s definitely not an all bad day.
Instant Watch will always be in flux as deals expire and media companies make deals with other services and content is broken down into different sorts of packages and Netflix continues on with its original programming plan. Subscriptions and revenue are up after two successful show launches, but it’s hard out there for a media content pimp…