Netflix 'streamageddon' turns out to be more of a trickle

That's according to the LAT's Dawn Chmielewski, who reports that the movie service is dropping about 1,000 titles, not 1,800 as earlier reported on a movie website, and that it's picking up roughly 500 titles. Anyone using the Netflix or Amazon streaming services knows that movies will come and go - it's a function of intricate licensing deals that are often cut by third parties with access to large blocks of content. As the number of streaming subscribers keeps growing, these messy purges will get more notice. We want it all - and we want it all the time. From the Times:

Movies routinely flow in and out of availability for the duration of these pay TV licensing agreements -- which can extend for years. Television viewers seldom notice, because premium channels don't offer all the movies in one big library-like bulge. The gap in availability is more obvious with on-demand services like Netflix, Amazon.com or Verizon. This has been a problem that has bedeviled digital services for years. Netflix spokesman Jonathan Friedland said the nature of such pay TV agreements is one reason Netflix has begun to license content directly from studios rather than through networks or pay television aggregators.