Netflix streaming still a crap deal compared to disc plan

Zap2It is out with a press release that Netflix streaming will now be expanding its vast collection to include ... a major network show that's been running for almost 9 years.

Netflix, Inc. today announced an extension of its multiyear licensing agreement for select CBS library content streamed instantly to Netflix customers. Under the revised deal, new titles such as “L.A. Complex,” “4400,” and “CSI: NY” will be available to Netflix subscribers.

Woop-de-freaking-do.

The fact that Netflix, five years into its streaming foray still has to fight tooth-and-nail for TV series which are naturally and simultaneously available on its disc service shows just how little progress the company has made. If I look at the list of shows I've enjoyed that are available on the disc service, cross referenced with IMDB's list of shows available on streaming, a little less than 39% of them are actually available (list below). Now, I don't know if that represents the entirety of all TV shows, but since that data isn't available (that I can see), this will have to do. And it's dismal.

One major problem with the streaming service is that HBO and Showtime refuse to participate, and a lot of great shows in this golden age of TV were or are on those services.

As bad as the figure for TV shows is, for movies it's far worse. Forbes did a quick look at the top 100 movies from 2010 and found only 8 that were streaming, with a similar number for 2011. After Netflix's deal with Starz expired, and MGM pulled a large number of titles recently, it's not hard to see why.

But 100% of the movies from that 2010 list are available on disc. So are 100% of my TV show list.

Then you consider the quality of the stream. Netflix uses 475 kB/s encoding for their movies. For a Blu-ray disc the number is more like 4000 kB/s, a factor of 10 better than Netflix's stream. Not that I blame them: Netflix already accounts for a third of all US internet traffic during the evenings. But you're paying for quality, and the disc is far better. Even DVD is 2 to 3 times as much data per second (although it uses an inferior compression algorithm, so this may mitigate the effect).

Netflix allows me to have a disc-only plan, and it's pretty cheap. I don't have streaming because, well, it's a shitty deal. I hope they fix it, but it's not in their control really.