# Why doesn't Netflix do old films? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 11, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-netflix-do-old-films/663196 "2013-07-11T02:45:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-netflix-do-old-films/663196/21 "2013-07-12T12:57:09Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Reads OP. Thinks of all the old movies he’s watched on Netflix streaming. Looks through pages and pages and pages of Netflix’s classic film listings in case he was imagining things. Wonders if OP somehow has a membership with a different Netflix. Yeah, no. Keep in mind that NF only streams many titles for a certain amount of time so any movie that you ever watched on Netflix streaming may not be available now. I got rid of cable so no longer have access to TCM and there really are currently not that many classic titles available to stream. If you watch classic films with any regularity (I watch them more than anything else) you will quickly exhaust NF’s catalog. Hulu has the Criterion collection and while they have some great titles, most of them are foreign or indie (not that there’s anything wrong with that etc etc, but for me I have to be in a particular mood to watch something like that). There’s \* so\* many streaming services out there that I wish there was at least one good option that specialized in classic movie content. The streaming service with the largest classic catalog is Vudu which is a pay by movie and not a subscription service, also it’s owned by Wal-Mart which I hate giving money to. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-netflix-do-old-films/663196/22 "2013-07-12T17:26:09Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > FWIW, [All Titles on Instant - from instantwatcher.com](http://instantwatcher.com/titles/all?earliest_year=1937&latest_year=1937) boast of having all instant watch titles. It probably has many errors as instant watch titles are disappearing frequently. InstantWatcher pegs the [current number of titles available on Netflix Streaming](http://instantwatcher.com/release_years) at around 11,600, with only 302 from 1950 or earlier. But in fairness, that includes recent TV shows, so the numbers for the last 10 years in particular are bloated. The numbers change daily as Netflix adds and drops content, but I count 221 movies from the 1950s, 213 from the 1960s, 372 from the 1970s, and 634 from the 1980s. What constitutes “old” and what constitutes " a lot" is all relative, but… You could watch a pre-1955 movie every night and not see there whole catalog in a year. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-netflix-do-old-films/663196/23 "2013-07-15T20:57:19Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Why so little representation of the sort of films stations like Turner Classic Movies run? I went to [TCM.com](http://TCM.com) and found they may have a database of about 170,000 titles and that they have some for sale and that they have a cable channel that runs about 13 titles a day - but I didn’t find much to compare and contrast with Netflix streaming. Since on any given day Netflix has perhaps a few thousand classic movies available for streaming (They have some TCM on disk, I am familiar with the concept.)I don’t understand the OP. What did I overlook? ---
**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:** [July 16, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-netflix-do-old-films/663196/24 "2013-07-16T19:09:35Z")
Market segmentation. Netflix used to have a bunch of classic movies, licensed from Warner Brothers. The licensing deal was not renewed [just a few months ago](http://mashable.com/2013/04/30/netflix-streamageddon-2013/), and WB has launched its own [streaming service](http://instant.warnerarchive.com/). I remember at the time, thinking that the WB’s “Watch Rare and Hard to Find Movies” tagline was pretty rich. Of course they’re hard to find; you don’t license anyone else to show them! So, part of the reason Netflix doesn’t have these movies is that the copyright holders are thinking (hoping?) that they can compete with Netflix in the streaming movie service market. Expect more of this. Unlike all the movie formats in the past, where anyone who wanted to could buy copies and start renting them out, the future of video rentals will be bundled and restricted. No one service will have everything available. All the content companies are duking it out over who will control the dominant platform. Are people willing to spend $10/month for classic movie streaming only? I guess we’ll find out. Personally, I’m holding onto my DVD subscription until no one left is offering it or the Postal Service cuts service back to every-other-Tuesday (even money on which happens first). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-netflix-do-old-films/663196.md?page=1)