From Luke Cage to Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Bloodline, House of Cards, Marco Polo, Narcos and so many more, Netflix is hitting it out of the park with their original series. But the streaming service is forced to pay a high cost to pump out so many hits, and users are starting to feel the toll.
The cost comes in the form of a diminishing database. Have you noticed the selection is starting to look a little bleak? You’re not alone. According to an analysis from Streaming Observer, Netflix’s movie library is actually moving backwards.
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A couple of years ago, Netflix’s database consisted of a large number of IMDB’s top 250 movies list – 49 to be exact, or just under 20 percent of their entire database. Not a bad number. Compare that to today, however, and you’ll find Netflix’s total number of movies from IMDB’s top 250 movies list has dropped to just 31, or about 12 percent.
So what’s the deal? Shouldn’t Netflix be expanding their library as opposed to restricting it? It probably comes down to money. Cranking out an endless list of hit originals isn’t cheap, and neither is licensing. It’s clear Netflix is moving in the direction of more original content, and it seems that at least at this point, users will only get one or the other: originals or a vast database of high quality, but older movies.
“We’ve been on a multiyear transition and evolution toward more of our own content,” said Netflix’s chief financial officer David Wells after announcing the streaming service planned to have half its content be original productions.
But what does Netflix’s transition plan look like, and how do they expect to retain their vast user base as its media library continues to dry up? These are questions that have yet to be answered, but in the meantime you can bid farewell to classics like Scarface and Gangs of New York as the company makes way for more originals.
Do you plan to hold out until Netflix reaches it’s goal of 50-50 original content, or will the shrinking database push you to another streaming service?
