Netflix is now primarily an Internet streaming service for television shows, not feature films.
TV series now account for more than half of all Netflix viewing. That helps to explain why this Wednesday (Feb 29, 2012) — the long-awaited moment when motion picture classics like “Scarface” and newer hits like “Toy Story 3” will vanish from the streaming service — is not the doomsday that it was once expected to be.
The vanishing films are from Starz. Its three-and-a-half-year-old deal helped Netflix persuade millions of people to sign up for Internet streaming.
It became clear about a year ago that the deal would not be renewed. By then, though, Netflix was bulking up on old TV episodes.
Analysts say the prioritizing of television partly explains why the company has been able to retain about 21.7 million streaming subscribers in the United States — totaling one in four households that have broadband.
Many of the new titles are full seasons of TV series like “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “Lost” that Netflix executives call “26-hour movies.”
Netflix is sensitive to that criticism — but says it doesn’t really matter. As long as its algorithms serve up something worth watching, even if it’s not the subscriber’s first choice, he or she will continue paying for and enjoying the service, the company believes.