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I can't speak to the DVD side of the equation, I suspect that is merely due to the fact that not enough people want to see relatively obscure old movies (on cla
by georgemcbay 12y ago
I can't speak to the DVD side of the equation, I suspect that is merely due to the fact that not enough people want to see relatively obscure old movies (on classic DVDs) enough to waste inventory space on them, especially as more and more people move over to Bluray (if only because their console supports it so why not) and online VOD/streaming more and more. But on the streaming side, it is the studios blocking Netflix out, not Netflix being oblivious to how bad their movie selection is.
I temporarily worked for a company in the VOD/Streaming space that was run by Hollywood-insider types when they sort-of-aquihired most of the employees of Chumby. Based on my limited time of seeing it from the 'inside', my impression is that Hollywood studio executives have a seething, furious hatred of Netflix and their business model, which they see as devaluing their content. (And I'm not saying they are wrong to think this -- at the very least the Netflix model certainly upsets all the applecarts of the way Hollywood has done business for nearly a century).
These people would basically instinctively scowl animated-villain-style when Netflix was brought up, even if it was in other contexts.
eg. Software architect explaining to business guys why default sharing on social media was not a good idea (at the time): "We shouldn't automatically share what movies a customer has watched because Netflix (studio-business-guys scowl, hiss, unhinge their jaws) recently got into legal trouble for that".
Originally the studios were OK with making some dough from Netflix on old long-tailed-out movie catalogs that would otherwise not be earning anything (because they sure do love money) but a few years ago they hit the brakes on that because they would rather earn less on the old catalog stuff than do anything to further validate the Netflix model, which they see as an existential threat to their business.