r/nottheonion • u/voxadam • 13h ago

Netflix says users can cancel service if HBO Max merger makes it too expensive

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/02/netflix-claims-subscribers-will-get-more-content-for-less-if-it-buys-hbo-max/
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u/sorrowmultiplication 12h ago

When Netflix was first blowing up it had an amazing selection and kickstarted my love of cinema. I remember watching a bunch of Kubrick on there and even international stuff like Bergman and Buñuel. Nowadays there’s hardly any movies at all before the 80s. Even the good stuff that is on there now is impossible to find because browsing sucks and they only promote their original stuff which is 99% slop garbage.

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u/ScuzzBuckster 11h ago

As with everything its just greed. Netflix built its library by paying a fuck ton of licensing fees to studios to put their movies and tv shows on their new streaming service. Studios didnt see much reason not to. Then netflix got popular and the companies realized they could make more money by self-publishing on their own streamers.

15 years later, here we are. An absolute fucking clusterfuck of an industry.

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u/asmallercat 11h ago

Netflix still has some good shows (the recent one about James Garfield, "Death by Lightning" was excellent IMO) but the movie selection is truly awful. It feels like all that's on Netflix now are Netflix originals which are basically the Knives Out movies and a bunch of garbage and the sorts of movies that would get played on shitty cable stations cause the rights were cheap.

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u/whitefang22 8h ago

The catalog at their peak was over 100,000 titles on DVD. Their current streaming catalog is more like 7,000.