Have you ever gone to your favorite streaming platform looking for a film or series that you wanted to watch, only to find that it was no longer there? Why does this happen?
There are a number of reasons that streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu can't keep titles available forever. Further, these reasons become more numerous and complicated as streaming becomes more competitive. Let's look at why this is the case.
To understand why a series or film can't be available forever, it helps to understand how it becomes available on a streaming service in the first place.
Some of the main reasons that streaming services don't host content forever have to do with licensing. Licensing is essentially the right for a distributor, like a streaming service, to distribute content that is owned by somebody else. Most of the content available on the average streaming service is actually owned by an entity other than that streaming service.
When you scroll through the offerings of your favorite streaming platform, you might see films from groups like Sony, as well as television programs from companies like Fox and the BBC. As explained by MPLC, these offerings are available on streaming services because those services pay the companies licensing fees for the titles.
The exception is original content. Most streaming services have some content that they made themselves, which they obviously own. Examples include The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu and Stranger Things on Netflix.
That brings up its own interesting question. If streaming services don't have to pay licensing fees on original content, why bother taking it down?
Even though streaming services don't have to pay themselves to distribute their own content, the bill comes due. Most actors, in addition to any up-front money they may get paid initially for working on a film or series, also get paid what are called residuals. Residuals are payments that distributors make to actors.
Usually, residuals are a portion of the licensing fees paid by a distributor. But in the case of programs that are produced "in-house," those bills still need to be paid.
Further, not all "originals" are produced in-house. According to Netflix, some of its original content is produced by someone else that has the exclusive rights to distribute. For example, the series Peaky Blinders is labeled as a Netflix Original, but is produced by BBC, Tiger Aspect Productions, and Caryn Mandabach Productions.
Streaming sites also have to the production cost of producing a film or a season of a series. This is a direct influence in the case of films and series that are produced in-house. However, if the streaming service does produce content in-house, that production cost is still reflected in the licensing cost.
Now that we have a better understanding of how content gets onto a streaming site in the first place, why does it have to come down?
As Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told Variety, "A big expensive show for a huge audience is great. A big expensive show for a tiny audience is hard, even in our model."
When it comes to original programming, a single title can make a difference. Particularly since, as Newsweek pointed out, sites like Netflix are putting more money behind original programming than they used to. Further, with more streaming services to compete with, each one wants to have an edge over the others.
According to Netflix, one of the major reasons behind taking down a title is licensing availability. This is a growing part of the picture as more streaming services show up.
Streaming services want to have exclusive content. That's particularly true when content producers like Disney and NBC create their own streaming services (Disney+ and Peacock, respectively).
In a lot of cases, when content providers launch their own streaming services, they stop making licenses for that content available to other streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. This is in a bid to make themselves more competitive.
As mentioned above, even when streaming services don't make their own content, it costs them money to host someone else's content. If they're paying for content that no one is watching, it hurts their bottom line.
Obviously, streaming services like Netflix make their money from subscriptions. So no single title is going to make them much money or lose them much money when looking at the big picture. However, if they're paying for content that isn't pulling in and retaining subscribers, they need to rethink that.
Streaming services like Hulu also have another component to think about: advertisements. These platforms don't only make their money from subscriptions; they also make money from selling ad space, just like regular TV stations. But advertisers won't pay (or won't pay as much) for ad space if not enough people are tuning in.
No matter their business model, streaming services get more bang for their buck when they support the most popular content. This means striving for the best licensed and original content, while also culling less popular content.
There was a time when streaming services weren't competing with each other---they were competing with cable. Many people were tired of endlessly flipping channels and finding nothing to watch. So they switched to streaming.
Of course, back then there were only one or two streaming services. Now, streaming services do often find themselves competing with each other. And they fear that users will have the same experience on their streaming platform that they experienced with cable: scrolling too long and watching too little.
Streaming services usually offer free trials. During those free trials, they want to wow potential subscribers with how much quality content there is. That means minimizing the amount of content that fewer people want to watch. Even paid subscribers, if they have trouble finding interesting programming, may take their subscription money elsewhere.
Most streaming services also cut licensing fees by hosting content only when it will get the most views. They often host this content in special categories with names like "seasonal favorites." Think extra (or different) horror movies around Halloween or festive titles around Christmas.
Hulu, which hosts more network series that are still in production than Netflix does, has an additional system to manage long-running series. Hulu calls this "rolling availability." With rolling availability, only a handful of recently aired episodes are available on the platform.
There are a number of reasons for rolling availability, including encouraging people to watch the show as it runs and potential licensing issues.
Streaming services came into our lives to make the process finding quality content simpler. And for the user, that's often what it looks like. That is, until a favorite show or film disappears.
The truth is that streaming is anything but simple. Streaming platforms find themselves facing legal and marketing challenges that can only really be overcome with a revolving door for content.
The good news for viewers is that, in most cases, that film or program didn't really disappear. It just moved somewhere else.
Image Credit: tookapic/Pixabay
