# Netflix Streaming % of total? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561 "2014-01-23T22:03:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/1 "2014-01-23T22:03:07Z")
Amazing how much trouble I’m having finding the answer to this question: What percent of Netflix’s inventory is available via streaming? Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/2 "2014-01-23T22:10:17Z")
Don’t know for certain, but in the near term it may be 100%. > **[Hold On, Scarecrow: Netflix Might Not Be in the DVD Business for Much Longer](https://www.thestranger.com/books/2013/10/21/18009606/hold-on-scarecrow-netflix-might-not-be-in-the-dvd-business-for-much-longer)** > > Much is being made of the fact that Netflix now has more subscribers in the US than HBO. But Vadim Rizov at The Dissolve makes note of something hidden in the earnings indicating that Netflix's DVD-by-mail model might not be long for the world:... As it is speculated that they may be ending their DVD by mail service. Besides, Netflix business vision is not to be the mail order Blockbuster, but to be the streaming HBO. That’s why they have been working so hard on their own original content. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/3 "2014-01-23T22:16:49Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Don’t know for certain, but in the near term it may be 100%. > > [http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/10/21/hold-on-scarecrow-netflix-might-not-be-in-the-dvd-business-for-much-longer](http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/10/21/hold-on-scarecrow-netflix-might-not-be-in-the-dvd-business-for-much-longer) > > As it is speculated that they may be ending their DVD by mail service. > > Besides, Netflix business vision is not to be the mail order Blockbuster, but to be the streaming HBO. That’s why they have been working so hard on their own original content. Yeah, they always say that streaming is their future so I wondered when 100% of their inventory will be available to stream. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/4 "2014-01-23T22:55:15Z")
Note that if this happens, no one is saying that the same vast library now available via the DVD-by-mail service will be available for streaming. Because the first-sale doctrine means that if Netflix, you or the local library can buy a title on DVD, Blu-Ray or book format, you can rent or lend it out. That’s not true for streaming content, for which the rights to make it available have to be negotiated, perhaps title-by-title. And the rights holders (the various movie studios, HBO, Showtime, etc.) may want to only make the content available via their own streaming service. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/5 "2014-01-23T23:17:08Z")
Yes Dewey you are right…those new release movies that you are able to get via the physical by mail subscription, will likely not be available via streaming. But if there is no physical by mail…then 100% of their titles will only be available via streaming. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/6 "2014-01-23T23:26:36Z")
I hope Netflix doesn’t drip their DVD by mail service, as I VASTLY prefer it to streaming. It’s precisely their enormous movie catalog (the overwhelming majority of it available on DVD only) that I value Netflix for, and that will shrink down to next to nothing if they switch to streaming only. Blech! Frankly, if I had to choose, I’d keep the DVD by mail and drop the streaming service. Streaming sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/7 "2014-01-23T23:32:34Z")
> [@artemis](#): > > Streaming sucks. Dear me, no. Streaming is glorious. _If_ you can get it to work properly and _if_ they have the title you want and _if_ it is reasonably priced ( a la Netflix ). Granted the answers to those three “ifs” do tend to affect the experience slightly :D. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/8 "2014-01-24T00:14:13Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Dear me, no. Streaming is glorious. _If_ you can get it to work properly and _if_ they have the title you want and _if_ it is reasonably priced ( a la Netflix ). > > Granted the answers to those three “ifs” do tend to affect the experience slightly :D. And that’s the problem. In a lot of areas in the US, internet speeds are too slow for any streaming at all. Then there are the technical glitches, and the fact that streaming rights to any individual title come and go apparently randomly, you end up having to subscribe to a half-dozen services to find everything you’re interested in (since many rights holders make exclusive arrangements with only one service, like Criterion did with Hulu), and the fact that much of the older and most interesting stuff isn’t available for streaming at all… Eff that! When I go home, I’m tired and i just want to watch a movie, not play around with tech toys. And I want to watch titles like _Ikiru, City Lights, Floating Weeds, Lawrence of Arabia_, and _Grizzly Man_, not the latest Hollywood blockbuster dreck. I want the video equivalent of a really great public library, and right now Netflix with their DVD rental service is the main provider of that. We’ll all be the poorer for it if it goes away. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/9 "2014-01-24T00:21:34Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > Amazing how much trouble I’m having finding the answer to this question: What percent of Netflix’s inventory is available via streaming? Getting back to the OP’s original question: I suspect you’re having trouble finding an answer to that question because streaming rights expire, while the right to continue to rent out DVDs does not. So the ratio of streamed content to DVD content probably fluctuates considerably over time, as different rights holders add or remove Netflix’s rights to stream their titles. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/10 "2014-01-24T01:31:42Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > Yeah, they always say that streaming is their future so I wondered when 100% of their inventory will be available to stream. Due to the way rights for streaming work, the only way this will happen is if they drop the DVD service completely (at which point it becomes an uninteresting question). As a brief experiment, [IMDB.com](http://IMDB.com) film title pages are of the form [imdb.com/title/tt#######/](http://imdb.com/title/tt#######/) where the #s are digits. I used [random.org](http://random.org) to generate me 20 7-digit random numbers and looked at the movies. My plan was to see if the movies were on Netflix DVD and/or streaming, but I got a whole lot of individual episodes of television shows and foreign short films. So, that didn’t work out quite the way I wanted. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/11 "2014-01-24T01:35:24Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > Yeah, they always say that streaming is their future so I wondered when 100% of their inventory will be available to stream. Never. Streaming rights are issued for limited times and are not always renewed, so Netflix will never have 100% of their DVD content also available via streaming. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/12 "2014-01-24T04:16:51Z")
> [@artemis](#): > > Never. Streaming rights are issued for limited times and are not always renewed, so Netflix will never have 100% of their DVD content also available via streaming. Ok. So then they keep shipping out DVDs? Or if say American Beauty is not available to stream then too bad, you just don’t get to see it? ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/13 "2014-01-24T04:28:52Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > Ok. So then they keep shipping out DVDs? Or if say American Beauty is not available to stream then too bad, you just don’t get to see it? If they keep the DVD service going and American Beauty isn’t available for streaming, the folks who subscribe to the DVD service can still see that movie, while those who only subscribe to the streaming service are out of luck. If Netflix decides to close down the DVD service, then, yes, everyone’s out of luck. If Netflix can’t obtain the streaming rights to a film then they can’t stream it, no matter what their subscriber base would prefer. But once they buy a DVD, it’s legally THEIR DVD, and they can continue to loan it indefinitely (exactly the way libraries can loan out books). When it comes to maintaining a large and highly varied media collection, DVDs beat the pants off of streaming. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/14 "2014-01-24T04:30:03Z")
I also wanted to recommend hulu plus if you are a film aficionado. They have the criterion collection and it’s only 8 bucks a month. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/15 "2014-01-24T04:47:43Z")
And in the event Netflix does decide to leave the DVD by mail business, [Cafe DVD](http://www.cafedvd.com/index.html) looks like a worthy alternative for those who (like me) don’t care much for streaming. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/16 "2014-01-24T04:55:30Z")
It seems unlikely that they will just drop the physical disk service. If they did, think about where that would put them in negotiations with content owners. “You might as well let us have the streaming rights, since customers will just watch the disk and return it if you don’t”. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/17 "2014-01-24T05:34:44Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > It seems unlikely that they will just drop the physical disk service. If they did, think about where that would put them in negotiations with content owners. “You might as well let us have the streaming rights, since customers will just watch the disk and return it if you don’t”. That’s an excellent point. Until (if) Netflix can become a major content producer in their own right, they can’t afford the risk of going to a streaming-only model. There are too many other content owners who’d love to see Netflix die, because that would mean less competition and higher prices. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/18 "2014-01-24T12:57:50Z")
A couple of years ago, they _were_ planning to drop the DVD-by-mail service. The plan was to spin it off and keep only the streaming service. This went over like a lead balloon and the stock dropped _a lot_. (Since then they reversed course on that and the stock is at all-time highs. I’m kicking myself for not investing back then.) ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/19 "2014-01-24T13:26:07Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > A couple of years ago, they _were_ planning to drop the DVD-by-mail service. The plan was to spin it off and keep only the streaming service. This went over like a lead balloon and the stock dropped _a lot_. Yeah, I remember that debacle. You’d think Netflix would keep that in mind when they plan their long-term corporate strategy. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561/20 "2014-01-24T16:17:19Z")
Interesting points all. As for the OP’s actual question, I’d estimate the answer at about 10%. That is based on how often I search for a movie and get the answer “Not available on streaming, but available on DVD.” (which I get about 90% of the time) This 10% SWAG is for movies, though. I don’t know what it is for TV shows, I rarely search for those. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/netflix-streaming-of-total/679561.md?page=2)