Around this time of the year, we get inundated with questions surrounding the horror movie selection that’s provided by Netflix regions around the world or lack of we should say. Many fans state their intent on watching horror movies around this time of the year because it’s the season of Halloween.
So what we thought we’d do is look into some of the reasons that Netflix horror movie library is rather lacking, particularly at this time of the year. The answer isn’t quite as black and white as we’d like it but because of the large sums of money involved it does sometimes get complicated.
To understand why Netflix’s horror library is poor then it’s important to understand the business that Netflix is in and how it goes about obtaining its content. In recent years, Netflix has been taking the often cheaper method of creating its content for themselves. Series like Hemlock Grove, House of Cards and Oranges is the New Black are the fruits of this labor and as a result, Netflix owns the rights to those programs. All of the other content is purchased, usually in yearly contracts, to allow Netflix to stream their content.
For example, if you’re a fan of Arrow, The CW series, then Netflix renews its contract every year and forks out more money to keep the old seasons streaming and get the new seasons streaming. The same thing applies to movies too. In a recent example, Netflix decided to pull out of its deal with EPIX. The deal is thought to worth millions every year, and Netflix took the strategic decision to renew. This cost the service a lot of movies including many of the horror greats.
Moving back to the point, this method of buying up content means you’re in a free market meaning you’re competing ever October with the biggest networks, streaming channels and distribution centers to get that horror movie streaming. With this competition, it means that the distribution outlet can and will raise the price of how much it costs to put it on your channel/streaming service. Unfortunately, that means those with the deepest pockets will obtain the content around Halloween. AMC does a particularly good job at this every year with their Fear Fest schedule.
We’re going to post about individual horror movies as time goes on but we hope this gives you some understanding as to why the horror selection on Netflix may be poorer than you think.
