All eyes are focused on Netflix’s attention-grabbing original programming initiatives right now, which many see as offering a challenge to HBO (though the premium cable channel remains significantly more profitable). But Netflix is still hitting bumps along the road when it comes to its movie library, facing press over “streamageddon” days when many movies expire and dealing with the increasing costs of licensing more in demand titles.
Netflix’s library of films available to stream is still sizable, and its vaunted recommendation algorithm serves to surface titles viewers may not have realized were available or that they might be interested in. But does an on-demand environment create a feeling of being surrounded by films and TV series you can’t quite bring yourself to watch instead of the ones you actually do? The Onion offers a typically dead-to-right skewering of the streaming service below in covering its (fictional) new “browse endlessly” plan, which would allow subscribers to browse forever without ever deciding on what to watch. They even have Steven Soderbergh supposedly pointing out that “Netflix’s new plan is perfect for the person who heard my movie was pretty good a few years ago and would like to see it, but not enough to actually sit down and watch it.”
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