Netflix Losing Streaming Rights to Movies, TV

[Greg Tito]

Netflix Losing Streaming Rights to Movies, TV

Starz chooses to abandon its contract with Netflix.

If you've watched movies or TV shows on Netflix's streaming service in the last couple of years, chances are you've viewed something that was licensed from Starz. The premium cable network allowed Netflix to stream its "Starz Plays" content to all unlimited users, but negotiations to renew that agreement have collapsed. Starting on February 28, 2012, Netflix will no longer stream any Starz content which includes "approximately 1,000 movies, original series, and new releases from major Hollywood studios."

"This decision is a result of our strategy to protect the premium nature of our brand by preserving the appropriate pricing and packaging of our exclusive and highly valuable content," the Starz CEO said.

"With our current studio rights and growing original programming presence, the network is in an excellent position to evaluate new opportunities and expand its overall business," he continued.

Netflix hasn't said anything regarding losing all this content, but the rising licensing costs are a long term problem for the internet movie company. Netflix recently had to indirectly raise prices by splitting [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111610-Netflix-Splits-Streaming-and-DVD-by-Mail-Services] its DVD-by-mail service and its streaming service into two separate payment plans, resulting in a net increase in subscription fees if you want to continue using both.

Movie and television studios are brokering deals directly with Netflix for their content to appear on the service, but the price of those contracts are forcing Netflix to raise revenues. Hopefully, the company can bounce back from losing Starz, but it will be a challenge.

Which is a shame. I quite like being able to think of watching something and searching to find it. Now, my options will be even more limited.

If you're wondering what shows and movies will be affected, you can click on the "Starz Play" once you log in to the Netflix website. What's there isn't a comprehensive amount of content but the loss to the service is significant.

Source: Hollywood Reporter [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/starz-wont-renew-netflix-streaming-230357?]

Permalink

 

[ph0b0s123]

We want to get lots of money for our content even if it means the consumers access to it decreases. But we cannot understand why there is increasing amounts of piracy of our content though....

 

[duchaked]

looking back to my time with Netflix...oh snap, there were a few movies from Starz. not a terrible much, but hm...

if I go back to using Netflix (streaming only, never wanted mail-in DVDs), don't think I'll be missing out too much. there were quite a few non-Starz movies and shows I wanted to watch that were DVD-only, and that bothered me the most.

 

[Tony2077]

meh i hate these bastards how dare you kill blockbusters

 

[Iron Lightning]

Well, Starz sucks anyway. Doesn't Starz get fat duckets from Netflix for its content? It's improbable that most people who use Netflix's Streaming service (i.e. heavy internet users) would switch to Starz on television since people are usually either use mostly internet or mostly television and there's fairly little overlap.

 

[Speakercone]

Dear Starz,

You just guaranteed increased piracy of your products. People will consume your products however they choose regardless of what you try to do to control it. The best tactic is to make your products available at a range of prices on as many platforms as you can possibly think of so that anyone who wants them has the opportunity to purchase them.

The choice is no longer between "pay to watch" and "don't watch", it's between "pay to watch" and "pay nothing to watch anyway".

Pretty simple maths there fellas. Good luck making money from anything other than syndication.

 

[GrimTuesday]

Meh, for the most part I've seen all the good shit that was on Netflix due to the licensing agreement with Starz. Sure, it will decrease the amount of good new movie coming in, but at the same time, this frees up funds that Netflix can use to acquire other license agreements with other studios and such. They should try to restart negotiations with HBO because if I remember correctly, one of the main reasons negotiations failed was because of the agreement with Starz, although with the recent launch of HBOGo, They might be less willing to stream stuff through Netflix as well.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Ok, I'm done. I put up with the crappy redesign and the price hike, but I watched the Starz movies all the time.

Good luck with the downward spiral, dicks.

 

[castlewise]

This is going to be a real problem for streaming in general moving forward. All of the various parties are taking their property back, which means there will be more monopolization and higher prices

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

meh i hate these bastards how dare you kill blockbusters

If it weren't them, it would be someone else.


OT: Nooooo! I love Netflix! IS WEEDS GOING TO BE AFFECTED? I FUCKING LOVE THAT SHOW!

 

[shadyh8er]

Meh, whatevs. As long as I still got my anime, I'm cooler than a squirrel wearing a top hat. (If anyone has a picture of that, please send it to me!)

Captcha: rsappo was

Rsappo was what? What was iiiiiit!?

 

[Davih]

Why not just ask them to put the prices up, I'm assuming there is a contract involved somewhere, so why not just amend it so there is a minimum price on films or something similar?

I don't use Netflix so I'm not too bothered.

 

[unoleian]

Doesn't do Starz a bit of good. I'm not cancelling Netflix and subscribing to cable to chase their content, and I highly doubt I'm unique in that respect. Just a net loss for Starz, overall.

Granted, it turns an already seemingly limited selection into one that's even more-so, and Netflix streaming is becoming less justifiable every day. So is Hulu Plus...at least on XBox 360. Why in the world is 3/4 of their available content behind a "web only" wall? Lemme guess...licensing issues...

It smacks of greed on some level. Do they perform some sort of voodoo arithmetic to turn so many streams into a certain number of "lost subscribers" and charge Netflix for that, like everyone who boots up a movie licensed from Starz is a defector from their cable service? Cuz it sure feels that way.

 

[Sylveria]

4

"This decision is a result of our strategy to protect the premium nature of our brand by preserving the appropriate pricing and packaging of our exclusive and highly valuable content," the Starz CEO said.

"With our current studio rights and growing original programming presence, the network is in an excellent position to evaluate new opportunities and expand its overall business," he continued.

That's corporate speak for "We tried to gouge the shit out of Netflix and they wouldn't pony up the money, so we're taking our toys and going home."

And as people above me said, all this does is encourage piracy. I really wonder when these studios are going to get it in their head that jacking up prices and depriving people of content at reasonable rates just means that people will take the low road and get it for free. Some revenue is better than no revenue.

 

[Jfswift]

Can't they just add the option to pay a little extra for starz? I like the movies that service provides. *sigh*

 

[Double A]

Greed destroys everything once good. Netflix showed it was possible, so now all the license holders are taking back their rights to do their own streaming projects or jacking up the prices significantly.

Sad that Netflix is taking the blame for it, too.

But Netflix worked because it has such a wide variety of movies and TV shows. If the rights-holding companies start pulling out, Netflix will crash and burn, and so will the smaller selections. Many people will turn to piracy in an instant.

 

[Digitaldreamer7]

Meh, 7.99 for the ability for my 8 year old to "channel surf" is fine. Beat's cable any day. Hopefully this will bring in other contracts etc.

Someone can correct me if i'm wrong but, I think the old "reduce supply to increase demand" mantra of cable and movie channels pre-internet is a pretty terrible business strategy these days. Exclusivity of these channels to specific carriers is a bad move for anything that's not live tv. Make the product available to as many people as possible through the easiest means possible to win IMO. I could give a shit less about starz, but, if they promised all content available over streaming netflix it would be worth an extra dollar to me, and most consumers, We want a one stop shop for all our streaming needs.